The Avatar's Apprentice: Book I
by the musical bender
Summary: The story you all know but with a twist. Meet Kai, a unique bender who is destined to help Aang on his journey according to the spirits. During the way she will encounter adventure, tragedy, but also friendship and maybe even romance. See how she changes the story.
1. Ch 1:Prologue

**The Avatar's Apprentice: Book I**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender and probably never will.**

_**Prologue **_

Long before this story starts, a bridge was formed between the physical and spiritual worlds. This person, that the four elemental spirits had created, would become known as the Avatar. His or Her duty would be to keep balance in the physical world and protect the spirits that lived there. To help him or her, the Avatar was granted with the ability to bend all four elements and contact the spiritual world for advice. He or She would be reincarnated in each of the four nations following the order of air, water, earth, fire then back to air. This cycle became known as the Avatar cycle. The spirits, which helped create this being, were pleased at first with their work at first. In the very beginning, the Avatar helped promote peace and balance in a very turbulent world.

But after several cycles, the spirits noticed a flaw in their creation. By having the Avatar travel around the world to train and understand the customs and different forms of bendings in the world, he was often isolated and vulnerable. The Avatar was susceptible to attacks by up setters of the peace or made rash decisions. Because of this, in the early days the Avatar often failed as a promoter of peace. To solve problem, the spirits created another being called the Avatar's Apprentice. This being would be able to bend two elements, the one he or she was born into and the one element previous in the cycle, in which the current Avatar was born into. They would be reincarnated in the same cycle of the Avatar only one ahead. This being would train alongside the Avatar. When the Avatar became fully realized, the Avatar's Apprentice would travel with the Avatar during its duties. This being would act as companion, advisor, and protector throughout the Avatar's life. If for some reason the current Avatar's Apprentice was to die while the current Avatar was still alive, another Apprentice would be born in the same nation.

When the spirits' idea took form, it worked brilliantly. The Avatar and his or her apprentice proved to be an amazing force in protecting the balance of the world. But the spirits wondered if it would be enough when the Fire Nation declared war on the rest of the world.

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**Thanks for picking this story to read and I promise it will get better later on. If you liked this review please, if you didn't review any way. I just would love to hear some feedback. **


	2. Ch 2: Meeting Kai part 1

AN: I was really impressed by the response to the first chapter. You guys are awesome! I ended up splitting this chapter up into two because I didn't think I would get the full thing out before I went away for three weeks without internet access. Hopefully during the numerous car rides I can crank out the next two chapters. So here is the next chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: the Last Airbender

For reference

Normal

"Speaking"

_Dreams_

* * *

_**Meeting Kai part 1**_

Aang, Katara, and Sokka were tired. That was an understatement, they were exhausted It was understandable though, because who wouldn't be when a power hungry nation was chasing you, and wouldn't stop for anything. This was particularly true because the trio had just run into Prince Zuko earlier and had to flee their comfortable stay on Kyoshi Island. Aang could barely keep his eyes open because in addition to fighting an honor obsessed prince, he has also rode the unagi twice. That took a lot out of any grown adult and even more for a twelve year old boy.

Appa sensing this in his companion started his descent. When the bison has landed, the trio clumsily slid off his back. "We should probably find a good place to camp I suppose," Katara started.

The three children looked around and surveyed the area. In truth though, the idea of searching for another place to sleep was dreadful. "This place looks good," said Sokka quickly.

"Agreed," the two others replied.

"I guess we should start deciding who's doing what tonight," Katara said tentatively.

"No offense Katara, but I think that we should just go to sleep now. We're all tired. I mean look at Sokka, he's not even complaining about being hungry."

Sokka was already in his sleeping bag and he turned over saying, "Heard my name. I agree with the Avatar."

Snores filled the awkward silence that passed. "I guess so," said Katara.

Aang and Katara followed Sokka's example and quickly set up their sleeping bags. No more than five minutes later, gentle snores could be heard coming from the three sleeping children.

* * *

_Aang was laughing as he rode the hoping llamas across the island. He urged the one he was riding to go faster. Katara and Sokka were also on llamas on either sides of him, and Aang was resolved that he would win the race. His dream suddenly shifted though. He was now looking down onto an island from a bird's point of view. It looked suspiciously like the end tail of a dolphin or whale. It was lush and green but if he squinted hard enough, he could make out a village somewhat near the coast. The scene shifted again and he was now behind a woman. She had black, glossy hair in a ponytail and was wearing a light blue tunic and dark blue pants. He could not tell the age because he was behind her and couldn't see her face. But something peculiar stuck out about her, she was bending both water and air. He tried calling out to her when the scene suddenly ended. "Aang, c'mon wake up," he heard someone say_.

* * *

Aang groaned, but opened his eyes and saw that Katara was standing above him. "Hey, are you alright? You're usually a really light sleeper but you didn't seem to want to wake up this morning. I've been trying to get you up for the last five minutes."

"Yeah, I'm fine, just had a really interesting dream."

"Here, come over and have some breakfast and you can tell us all about it."

He and Katara walked over to the pot on the fire and he proceeded to tell her and Sokka about the girl in his dream. He finished saying, "I just can't get her out of my head. It's like something inside me is trying to tell me to find her, like she was a real person. She must be special if she can bend water and air."

"Aang," Katara ventured. "Do you think that maybe she could be the Avatar's Apprentice? I mean this apprentice should be able to bend water and air according to the legend."

"I had completely forgotten about her. The monks only mentioned it once to me but they said his or her identity would be revealed when I traveled to train for waterbending. You're probably right! We have to go find her!"

"Wait a minute," Sokka said. "Who's this Avatar's Apprentice person?"

"Geez Sokka, did you ever listen to Gran-Gran's stories? The Avatar's Apprentice was created by the spirits to help the Avatar on his are reincarnated into the next nation of the Avatar Cycle, but can also bend the element previous to their own."

"Not more spirit talk, I've already get it enough from the two of you. I don't need another strange bender with all their strange bendy magic."

"But Sokka," Katara argued. "This person is born at the same time as the Avatar, that means she's had 100 years to master waterbending. If we found her, we wouldn't even need to go to the North Pole."

"I guess you're right," Sokka said reluctantly. "Maybe she has some meat too."

"Great, let's go find her," Aang said excited.

"Wait Aang, we don't even know where she lives," Sokka pointed out.

"Oh yeah," he said dejected.

"What about the island from your dream? Maybe that's where she is," Katara suggested. "Do you remember what it looked like?"

"Of course," Aang said. He jumped onto the saddle next to Appa and started rummaging through the supplies. He grabbed the only map, brought it down, and spread it out. "There," he said pointing to an island just below the Earth Kingdom.

"Whale Tail Island," Sokka read off. "I don't think I've heard of anybody living there. In your dream did you see a village?"

"Definitely."

"Well I guess it's a start."

"Then let's go," Aang yelled jumping on top of Appa's head.

Soon the siblings joined him and they were off.

After a few hours of flying, they spotted the island. They could see the village from the sky, but as soon as they landed on the beach, it was completely covered. The beach ended abruptly at a line of tall, densely packed, tropical trees. "I think that it was somewhere this way," Aang said, pointing north.

They began walking through the forest in that direction. It was very hard though because of all the vines and fallen, rotting trees in their path. Sokka led the way using his machete to clear the way for the other two. Just as they were close to giving up hope of finding this village Sokka yelled, "There it is, up ahead."

Sokka had pointed to a large clearing in front of them. There were no more trees and only grassy hill. On top of the hill, they saw a village. They hiked up to the crest of the hill and instead of a bustling village like they thought they would find instead it was a ghost town. There wasn't any movement. "Ok, this is strange," Aang remarked. They continued farther into the village hoping to find some life. "Guys, this is starting to creep me out," Katara said.

"Wait, look at this," Sokka ran over to a nearby house. It was brown and made out of a combination of wood and reeds. But Sokka was looking at a straight black mark on the side of it. He rubbed onto his fingers. "You know what this means right?" He asked the other two. "The F-UMPH!"

He got cut off mid sentence as a wet force pushed him forward. Katara and Aang fell into him. They immediately got up and saw their attacker. It was a teenage girl who looked around Katara's age. Sokka could tell she was watertribe by her tan color but unlike Katara and Sokka she had shiny black hair that was worn in a simple ponytail. She looked a bit shorter than other girls she had met. She was wearing a light blue tunic that was tied by a white sash. It went down halfway to her thighs but she wore tight, dark, blue pants underneath and brown boots. Sokka noticed that she was also wearing the same colored fingerless gloves. "Get out of my village," the girl said, redding her defense again by picking up so more water.

"Wait, we're friends," Katara said, pointing to her clothes. "We're just looking for the Avatar's Apprentice."

They got hit by another blast of water, "Oh so just because you're wearing water tribe colors I should trust you with this information."

"Well yeah," said Sokka.

"I'm not falling for it. The Fire Nation probably just dressed three kids up with Water Tribe colors, which they didn't do a good job of doing," she said pointing to Aang. " Just leave me alone or I'll be forced to hurt you."

"We're not Fire Nation. Look, my sister is a waterbender," Sokka said pointing to Katara who waterbended to prove it. "And this kid here is the Avatar," he said gesturing to Aang who airbended his marble trick.

The girl dropped the water and walked over to the group. She started to help them up and explained, "I'm so sorry. I really thought you were the Fire Nation. We were just attacked by them about a month ago and I thought that you were them coming back name is Kai by the way."

Aang, Sokka, and Katara introduced themselves. Then, Aang asked, "Is that why it's so quiet here?"

"They took everybody," the girl said sadly. "We were a peaceful tribe and tried to stay out of the war. But then just one day they attacked. We caught so off guard. Our waterbenders tried to hold them off but it wasn't enough. They said they were trying to find the Avatar's Apprentice."

Aang face fell when he was listening to this, "Does that mean she's not here?"

"No, they didn't get her."

"But I thought you said-" Katara started.

"They missed one, me. I'm the Avatar's Apprentice."

"That's impossible," Katara exclaimed. "How can you be the Avatar's Apprentice?"

"Yeah, you're so young and not wrinkly." Sokka added.

"Aren't you supposed to be 112 years old like me?" asked Aang.

"I know, I know, I had the same reaction when I found out. But I am the Avatar's Apprentice and I can show you. Follow me," Kai said waving them to follow her.

They began walking down the pathway and down one that led into the woods. Kai began to explain, "I think that there was an Avatar's Apprentice born when you were, Aang, or at least this is what the elders told me. But since you went missing," Aang looked at his shoes at that comment. "He died without being able to learn airbending or take his place by your side. But since the Avatar cycle obviously hadn't advanced, another Avatar's Apprentice was born in the Water Tribe."

"That makes sense I guess," Sokka said skeptically. "But how do we know that you are really her?"

"That's what I am showing you," Kai replied.

Kai and the group had stopped outside a very old building with rotting wood, and a straw roof. A simple cloth covered the doorway. "This is the first building built on our island. It's not used anymore, but it's considered the spiritual center of our town. Wait here," Kai said.

She went inside while the group very curiously waited outside. "There it is," they heard her say.

Kai came out with a small pouch. "This is sand from the mountains of the Eastern Air temple," Aang lite up in recognition. "Aah, so you know what I'm talking about?"

"Yeah," Aang explained to the other two, "This is sacred sand that is sometimes used to determine if someone is an airbender. See watch," he took the pouch out of Kai's hands and opened it. "Katara, take some out of there and put it in front of me."

Katara did this and once it was placed in front of Aang, it started to swirl violently into a miniature tornado. "See how it swirls, it only does that when it's placed in front of an airbender . So that means if you are the Avatar's Apprentice," he trailed off.

"Yup, it should do the same,"

Aang carefully stuck his hand into the pouch being sure that the sand was kept firmly in his fist. He placed it right in front of Kai, and it started to swirl too. Not as fast or large as Aang but it still did. The three kids stared at Kai in amazement. Aang broke the silence with a huge smile and announced, "You really are the Avatar's Apprentice."

Kai simply nodded.

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Thanks for reading this and please, please review. My birthday was 4 days ago *wahoo* and reviews would be like late birthday presents


	3. Ch 3: Meeting Kai Part 2

**AN: Hi guys! I don't know if anyone is still interested in this story anymore because I got no reviews last chapter :( I've been away from computers and the internet for the last three weeks but I was able to write this by hand with some help with some really great friends. You know who you are. I now have all of Book One planned and I aiming for one episode a week during the summer but I can't guarantee anything. Anyway onto the story!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar the Last Airbender or the song Daydreamer by Adele.**

* * *

**Meeting Kai Part 2**

**Previously...**

_Aang carefully stuck his hand into the pouch being sure that it was kept firmly in his fist. He placed it right in front of Kai, and it started to swirl too. Not as fast or large as Aang but it still did. The three kids stared at Kai in amazement. Aang broke the silence with a huge smile and announced, "You really are the Avatar's Apprentice."_

_Kai simply nodded._

* * *

"That's great," Aang said. "You can teach me waterbending then."

Kai's face fell, "I would love to Aang but, I don't know either."

"Oh, ok then," he said disappointed.

"My village was in the process of contacting someone who could teach us. See until my ability was discovered, we were a village of non-benders. But after it was found out, we tested everyone and it turns out there were about 15 people, all kids or teenagers strangely many of them around my age. We were trying to find someone from the Northern Water Tribe to come down and teach us."

"Speaking of your village," Sokka interrupted. "What happened here? You told us that the Fire Nation attacked, but how and why? How did you alone survive?"

"It's a long story," Kai said her voice suddenly tired. "Have you had lunch? I could fix you up something back at my house."

"And tell us what happened?" Sokka asked, knowing she was evading the question.

"Sokka," Katara hissed, slapping him on his arm.

"What? I'm just really curious," he defended.

"I guess if you really want to know," she said slowly.

Sokka's face lit up and he started to follow Kai as she led them back to her village. They arrived in front of a mud and wood house. She led them inside. From what they could see, the space was split up into two rooms. One that looked like a kitchen area and another that contained a table with 4 chairs, and a few cushions surrounding a simple fireplace. There were cupboards and shelves that lined the walls with various trinkets. "My room and my parents are upstairs," she gestured to a hole in the ceiling and a ladder coming down from it. "What do you want to eat?"

"Meat," Sokka instinctively replied.

"I'll have anything without that, I'm a vegetarian," Aang added.

"Anything's fine," Katara said.

"2 Lau Lau and noodles for Aang, coming up," Kai said with a smile.

"Here, I'll come and help you," Katara offered.

"No, it's fine," Kai replied. "You're my guests. You can just wait at the table in the other room."

The trio and Kai split up and soon enough, Kai came back with the requested meals and

a bowl of noodles with fish for herself. They dug in. "This is really good," Sokka complemented, with a mouth of food.

Kai just nodded her thanks. They continued to eat in silence. That was until Sokka slowed down and asked yet again, "So can you tell us now what happened when the Fire Nation attacked?"

Kai's face immediately went sour and she pushed her half eaten bowl of noodles away. "I guess I should start out by saying, even though I'm not a master waterbender or even close, I figured out some basic moves from some old scrolls. So the day we were attacked, my friends and I were down by the creek..."

* * *

"Way to get me sopping wet, Chao," complained Jiang.

"Sorry, just was trying out a larger wave and it sort of got out of controls. But wet looks good on you," Chao apologized.

"Just get it off me,"Jiang said.

* * *

"Wait, wait, wait," Sokka interrupted Kai's story. "Who are these people?"

"Jiang, is and always has been my best friend. Chao is another close friend, who constantly flirts with Jiang. Satisfied?" Kai asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Continue," Sokka said, waving his hand.

* * *

"At least you can make a wave like that, mine is so punny it could hardly scare a fly," Kai complained.

"Oh, c'mon Kai, yours is not that bad, and you'll get it this big eventually," Chao encouraged.

"Well maybe it isn't but still sometimes I wonder, if I'm really the Avatar's Apprentice, I still think they choose wrong. I think it should have you," Kai argued.

"Kai, when the elders put the sand in front of me, it barely moved. But for you, it swirled into a mini tornado."

"I know, you've told me that a million times but logically speaking shouldn't the Avatar's Apprentice be the most powerful waterbender, and that's definitely you," Kai retorted

"Someday, it'll just click for you Kai, and you'll unlock all your super cool Apprenticey powers," Jiang encouraged.

"Unless I find the Avatar, I won't be able to do anything," Kai said sadly.

"Oh cheer up, Kai, it's a beautiful day, we have the harvest festival coming up in a week, and we'll find a waterbending master soon," Jiang said.

"Fine, I guess you're right, you have to look on the positive side," Kai replied with a smile.

"Let's get back to the village anyway," Chao suggested. "We can see if my mom has any pork dumplings already made that she can spare us."

They left the tree covered stream and began walking back on the hidden path to the village. The trio tended to practice their bending far away from anyone else. When they got closer to the village though, Jiang wrinkled her nose and smelt the air. "Do you smell..."

"Smoke," Chao and Kai both said. They all started running towards the village. They jumped and climbed through the forest as fast as they could.

The three of them broke through the trees that were on the edge of the village. It was in a state of chaos. Everyone was rushing around, the three couldn't even see any of their families. They noticed no red uniforms so far, so they guessed the Fire Nation hadn't reached their village they couldn't see their warriors. They were probably down at the beach already protecting the island. Some of their other waterbending friends were still in the village but they could be seen also hurrying down to the beach. Kai, Jiang, and Chao started heading down there to help out their friends. They were intercepted by the village elders though.

They bowed respectfully to them, as they were the oldest members of the tribe who helped make the decisions along with the chief. The three tried to sidestep around them but, Shin, the oldest, started to talk, "Chao, Jiang, as you can see we are under attack by the Fire Nation Navy. You two need to go down to the beach to help the others. Chao, as the chief's son, you will be the leader of the waterbenders. We feel that you can handle this responsibility."

Chao bowed again, "Thank you for believing in me. Jiang, Kai, come on."

"Actually, Kai will be staying here for just a minute, you other two go," Shing said.

The two started running away, but kept looking back on Kai. She nodded that it was fine to go on without her. She turned her attention back to the elders and asked, "So what do you want me to do?"

"You actually won't be fighting today."

"Whay! What do you mean? I can't just not fight, this is my village, I need to protect it. I'm the Avatar's Apprentice, it's my duty," Kai reasoned.

"Apprentice Kai," Shing said using her full title. " That's the exact reason you can't fight. You are much too valuable and if you get captured you most likely will die and you will fail the world. You must hide."

"I don't care about the world right now. This is my village and my people. I'm going to fight and you can't stop me," Kai said, running off.

"Kai, KAI!" Shing yelled to her. But she continued to run through the forest. Her emotions were taking over and she wasn't even looking where she was going. She ran smack into something solid and fell down on top of it. Kai looked down groaning from impact and noticed the thing she had run into was her boyfriend, Shen. He leaned up and gave her a quick peck on the lips, "Hi there," he said out of breathe.

Noticing this was because she was laying on him, she rolled off muttering an embarrassed sorry.

"You looked like you were really upset there. Is something wrong?" Shen questioned.

"Yes, everything's wrong. Our village is being attacked in case you haven't noticed!"

Shen cursed under his breath. "I was fishing on the other side of the island and I only noticed some smoke but I thought it was just a bonfire or something."

Kai continued now understanding her boyfriends confusion. "And the elders say that I need to hide because I'm the freakin' Avatar's Apprentice!"

"Ok, ok, calm down, deep breathes," he soothed. She closed her eyes trying to regain her cool. "Now don't hate me, but I think that you should listen to them and hide."

"What!" she screeched. "How can you say that? How can I just stand idly by while all the other waterbenders are fighting?"

"Because you're not like all the other waterbenders," Shen said. Kai huffed and turned her back to Shen. "I know you hate being singled out like that. You hate being the Avatar's Apprentice because it makes you so different from everybody else. But you've done so well at accepting it, and this is one of those situations that you have to be someone different," Shen said kindly.

"But isn't it my duty to defend us from the Fire Nation?" Kai argued.

"Well it won't be if you're caught. I can't lose you Kai. Not after they took my brother too. I can't stand for you to be caught, not because you're the Avatar's Apprentice but because you're my girlfriend. And I think...I think I love you," he finished.

It was the first time he had ever said that. The first time either had said it. Kai's eyes began to water. "Oh Shen," she said. "I..I...I..I"

"I understand," Shen replied. "Now will you trust me and let me help you hide?"

Kai nodded silently and Shen took her hand gently and started to lead her through the forest. A sense of urgency took over Shen when he heard nearby fireballs landing closer and he began pulling Kai faster. He kept looking over his shoulder for any sign of Fire Nation Soldiers. He stopped in front of a moss covered, rotting, hollow tree. "Kai, hide in here," he said gently pushing her into it. She crawled into the center, curled up into a ball, wrapping her arms around her knees and looked back towards Shen. "Stay here, until I come back and get you. Don't come out even if soldiers walk by, promise?"

Kai nodded and with one last look Shen sprinted away.

* * *

"That was the last time I saw Shen, or anyone from my tribe for that matter," Kai finished. "I stayed there for two days. When I saw Fire Nation soldiers walk by, I stayed there keeping my promise to Shen. They never thought to look in my tree. I heard far off cries and I did nothing. I was petrified. After two days, I built up enough courage and came out. I went back to the village and everyone was gone. Even the non-benders and children. The Fire Nation took everybody. Now I have no idea where they are or if, if, if they are still alive. The elders, my friends, or even my parents could be dead right now." Kai finally let the tears she had been holding back throughout her story.

Katara came over and placed a comforting hand on Kai's back. "I'm so sorry, I don't know if it helps but Sokka;s and mine's mom died in a raid a long time ago. It's worse not knowing if your parents are dead or alive."

Kai let out another sob and Aang said, "I know what you're going through right now. A few weeks ago I found out that my people were gone. I know what it feels like to be all alone. But Sokka and Katara told me that they're my family now. You can join it too or at least until you find your own family. We're headed to the North Pole because Katara and I still need to learn waterbending."

"Really?" she asked, wiping her face with the sleeve of her tunic.

"Yeah, and I beat Aang can teach you airbending on the way," Sokka added.

"Sure thing," said Aang.

"I could look for information on my tribe on my way. I'm sure somebody knows what happened to them."

"Yeah, it actually sounds like your best chance," said Katara.

"Then it's settled," Sokka announced. "You come with us and we can leave tomorrow if that's ok with you."

"We can take all the supplies and food leftover that we can find," Kai suggested. "I'm sure my village wouldn't mind since it's for the Avatar."

"Do you have meat and stuff?" Sokka asked anxiously.

"Yes, Sokka," Kai laughed. "We have plenty of meat."

"Good, good, because Aang burned my last seal jerky," he said, glaring at Aang who backed away from Sokka's angry gaze.

"But at least the campfire smelled good, you said," Katara pointed out the bright side.

"I don't think we have seal jerky, but we definitely have tons of fish," said Kai.

"That reminds me, what is this place anyway? You said, there were a bunch of waterbenders but how?" Katara asked.

"I don't know the full story but I know our ancestors came from one of the Water Tribes. They weren't happy that it is only one person ruling the entire tribe, not that I'm saying it's bad," Kai said quickly looking at Sokka and Katara. "We settled on this island and they named it the Southeastern Water Tribe. That's why the elders are so important."

"That's actually really interesting," commented Aang. "It's sort of like how the Air Temples were ruled."

"I guess, I don't know. Since the war, we've just tried to stay out of it and hidden. We've taken in the occasional refugee, but mainly just stayed neutral. That's why we weren't prepared for any attack."

Kai got a glazed look in her eyes that Sokka had noticed she got when she brought up the attack. He tried breaking this trance thingy by saying, "Weren't you going to show us upstairs?"

"What," Kai said, obviously have not had been paying attention. "Oh yeah, follow me."

She led them up the ladder to a small wooden hallway. There were three doors, pointing to the last one, "That one on the end is my parent's room. Could you not go in there? It just would feel weird. The one in the middle is the bathroom and this is my room," Kai said opening the last door.

It was a small room with a twin sized bed with a blue quilt over it. A trunk lay at the base of the room and a simple vanity and stool across the room. A guitar leaned up agaisnt a wooden dresser. "I guess you guys can stay here tonight but it would be a bit cramped. You guys could sleep downstairs if you wanted but.."

"I know, me and Kai can sleep up here while Aang and Sokka sleep downstairs," Katara suggested.

"That's fine with us," Aang said.

"I just guessed that since you guys were so close that you wanted to sleep together," Kai said.

"Are you kidding me?" Katara asked, laughing. "As much as I love Sokka, I've been listening to his snores for years and I've been dying for peace and quiet.

Aang laughed along with Katara and Kai while Sokka just pouted. But Aang ceased when he finally noticed the guitar in the corner. "Woah, you play?"

Kai walked over and picked it up and sat on her bed, resting the guitar on her lap. "Yeah since I was little. How about you?" She asked absentmindedly tuning it.

"No, but I've always wanted to. Can you teach me?"

"How about you teach me airbending and I'll teach you guitar?"

"Deal," Aang said with a smile.

"Can you play something now?" Katara asked.

"Sure," Kai said.

_Daydreamer, sitting on the seat_

_Soaking up the sun, he is a real lover_

_Making up the past_

_And feeling up his girl like he's never felt her figure before_

_A jaw dropper_

_Looks good when he walks_

_Is the subject of their talk_

_He would be hard to chase, but good to catch_

_And he could change the world with his hands behind his back_

_You can find him sitting on your doorstep_

_Waiting for a surprise_

_And he will feel like he's been there for hours_

_And you can tell that he'll be there for life_

_Daydreamer, with eyes that'll make you melt_

_He lends his coat for shelter _

_Because he's there for you when he shouldn't be_

_But he stays all the same for you, then sees you through_

_There's no way I could describe him_

_All say is, just what I'm hoping for_

_But I will find him sitting on my doorstep_

_Waiting for a surprise_

_And he'll feel like he's been there for hours_

_And I can tell that he'll be there for life_

_And I can tell that he'll be there for life_

The three travelers looks at Kai with mouths open. "What, is anything wrong?" she asked.

"You're amazing," Aang sputtered.

"How long have you been singing?" Katara asked.

"Since forever really, music was a big part of my tribe growing up and it's sort of inbred in me," Kai said giving a shrug. "I was thinking of being a traveling singer with my friends when we got older, but then all that happened," she said making vague hand gestures.

"Anyway," Aang started. "Can I bring Appa up here? I just remember I left him at the shore."

"Who's Appa?" Kai asked curiously.

"He's my giant flying bison, Momo, my flying lemur is probably bugging him."

"Sure, I bet we can find room for them somewhere," she said confidently.

* * *

Aang, Katara, and Sokka returned with the previously named animals. When the Kai saw the size of Appa, her eyes widened. "I guess he could sleep outside," she said unsure, looking up at the now graying clouds. "But it's probably going to rain and I would hate for him to be just left out here in the pouring rain." She pondered this for a minute, "I know just the place for him. There's a huge cane about 15 minutes away from here that he could stay in."

Appa gave out a growl in protest though. "Appa doesn't really like caves," Aang explained. "He doesn't like being caged off."

"But this cave is really spacious and has a large opening, he could at least check it out."

"What do you say buddy?"

Appa let out another groan, but this one was considerably happier.

They flew out to the area, in which Kai directed after getting over the amazement of flight. When they arrived there, Kai pointed out the cave. Appa walked over there, stomping his feet to feel the area. He let out a grunt of approval and settled down in the cave. The gang walked back to the village chatting about nonsense. After unpacking all their supplies, they noticed it was nearing dinner time. Katara, Kai, and Aang worked to make dinner while Sokka was in charge of bringing more firewood in.

They has a simple dinner while talking about funny stories of their pasts and just generally getting to know each other. Aang then offered, "Kai, why don't I give you your first airbending lesson?"

"You really mean that," Kai said excited.

"Of course."

"Yes, yes, yes, please!"

The two siblings laughed at Kai's childlike reaction. Kai quickly finished her dinner almost bouncing up and down in excitement. The group cleared their plates then Aang and Kai headed down to the beach.

It was dark by the time they got there. The smooth sad pushed down by the tide cushioned their feet. It was a ¾ moon so they were able to see considerably well. The waves were starting to get larger because of the storm coming in. "I don't know how long it will hold off," Aang said gesturing to the clouds. "But we should probably try to get back to your house before it. I don't know how hard it will be learning to airbend in the pouring rain."

"Ok, sounds good," said Kai.

"The basis of airbending is freedom, but being balanced at the same time. You must have a calm and clear mind while still being free. The Air Nomads often meditated so they could achieve this. You can do it with me if you want."

"Whatever you think will help," she said with a shrug.

"Hmm," Aang said. "Why don't we start with a simple air gust?"

Aang walked over to and Kai and started again, "You need to keep light on your feet. Airbenders often need to look at a situation from multiple angles and if one way doesn't work, then try a different method. I suggest standing on the balls of your feet when you first start."

Kai adjusted herself appropriately. "Now the motion is relatively simple. Watch me." He demonstrated thrusting his right arm forward. A powerful blast ruffled the bushes in front of them. "Now you try," Aang instructed. "Try to have a clear mind."

She took a deep soothing breathe and then thrust her arm forward. A gust of air appeared and also hit the bushes. Kai jumped up and down, "I did it! I can't believe it!"

"Congratulations Kai, you airbent," Aang smiled. "It sort of makes me feel better that even though you're not an Air Nomad that you share the same ability as me. It makes me feel less lonely."

"I know the feeling, when I was the first one who found out they could waterbend I felt so isolated. Once my friends discovered their abilities, I was so relieved that I had someone like me."

"Do you want to try that again?" asked Aang perked up.

"Why not! Practice makes perfect."

Aang and Kai practiced the move again and pointed out small mistakes and gave out tips to make it better. Soon enough, Kai had now almost mastered the move making it almost as strong as Aang's when the first raindrop fell. Kai expertly led him back to the village in a quarter of the time that it took when he had originally landed on the island.

They got into the house in which they noticed Sokka and Katara had unpacked all their supplies. "How did it go?" Katara asked.

"She's a natural," Aang complimented. "She got it right away. Kai , do you want to show them?"

"Maybe tomorrow, when we aren't inside where many things can break," Kai said lightly. "I just wish that waterbending came this easily. Why am I better at this element than my natural one?"

Aang and Katara shrugged in response. "Maybe it's because you never had a real teacher. Anyway, why don't we get sleep?" Katara suggested.

"Good idea," muttered the two boys.

"Just to let you know, I usually take an early morning swim, so if I'm gone in the morning that's where I am," Kai said.

The boys and girls split up going to their respective rooms. Kai and Katara said a quick goodnight and fell asleep.

The next morning, Kai woke up early, rising as she did every morning. Grabbing the appropriate clothes, she tip toed out of her room trying not to wake Katara. She knew that traveling with two teenage boys probably took a bit out of her. She slide down the ladder and quietly left the house. As she stepped outside, she took in the smell of freshly rained on grass, a smell she absolutely loved. Jogging through the well known path to the beach, she arrived as the orange haze covered the sky. Leaving her towel and fresh clothes on the shore, she splashed into the ocean. The briskness of it quickly woke her senses. Kai swam absentmindedly around savoring each moment of it knowing that it would be her last for a long while. The idea of leaving her home was thrilling but also frightening. This place was her home and she rarely left it. The few times she did, Kai always ended up getting into trouble or hurt. The most recent time being when she was eight and she had been burned by that young firebending soldier. Though that happened seven years ago, it still brought back horrible memories. It was the first real time when Kai realized what the Fire Nation could do. She touched the scar on her left elbow subconsciously. It was most intense on the outside of it but the scar licked inside to the crook of her elbow.

Her thought were ripped away from her when she heard distance footsteps coming down the beach. As a precaution, Kai quickly got out of the water and hid in the bushes changing into her regular clothes. When she saw the red uniforms, her heartbeat began to race. Fire Nation soldiers walked down the beach. She heard the leader order to search the forest and find the village. Kai scrambled further into the forest racing back to the village to warn the gang.

Her blood pounded in her ears as she cut through the forest. How could Fire Nation soldiers be here today? They had left her alone for the last month but as soon as Aang, Katara, and Sokka showed up they came back.

Breaking into the clearing that had her village, she sprinted up to her home and threw open the doors. Kai yelled, "You guys, wake up now!"

"Whatsgoinon?" Sokka asked, yawning and strolling into the kitchen.

"We need to get out of here," Kai said rushed.

"What do you mean?" asked Aang who had followed Sokka into the kitchen.

"I was just swimming down at the beach and I saw Fire Nation 're coming up to the village."

"Katara, get down here, Now!" Sokka yelled up the ladder.

"How did Zuko find us?" Aang asked exasperated.

"Who's Zuko?" Kai asked curiously.

"He's this crazy teenage Fire Nation prince who has been chasing Aang around trying to capture him. We just ran into him literally two days ago, I don't understand how he caught up to us so fast," said Sokka.

"Wait, what does he look like? It didn't seem like the leader of them was a teenager," Kai remarked.

"He is bald except for a high ponytail and a huge scar over his left eye," Aang described. "I didn't see anyone who looked like that. They just said they were on their way to the village nothing about finding the Avatar."

"What's going on?" asked Katara, finally coming down the ladder.

"Random Fire Nation soldiers are on the island," Aang explained.

"Therefore we need to get out of here and fast," Sokka added.

"We're not going to have enough time to get everything and make a clear get away. I can hold them off. You guys get everything and pick up Appa and Momo. Then come back here and pick up me," said Kai.

"No, we're not splitting up," declared Aang. "We'll all stay. We can take them."

"That makes no sense," Kai argued. "I know the island the best, so I can fight it the best."

Aang opened his mouth to argue again but Kai cut him off, "We're just wasting time, you guys go and take what you need."

Kai began backing up towards the door when Katara said urgently, "Wait, do you need anything?"

"My guitar and the knapsack under my bed," Kai answered, opening the front door.

"Wait," Katara yelled again. "Take this," throwing her pouch of water.

Kai caught it somewhat gracefully and ran out of the house. She ran over to the forest right outside the village. Kai hid slyly behind a tree, her stomach fluttering in anticipation of the upcoming battle. She was determined that this time she would protect her village. Memories of the attack began pushing into her mind, "No," she whispered, thinking back to what Aang said about having a clear mind. Kai counted silently to ten to calm her racing thoughts. Waiting in silence for what seemed like an eternity, she heard the loud approaching footsteps of what could only be the Fire Nation soldiers. Kai uncorked the cap of the water skin as quietly as she could. Her hands drew out the water and were now immersed in her natural element. She risked a glance from behind her hiding spot. There, the Avatar's Apprentice saw four soldiers coming towards her and the village. Kai definitely knew that she couldn't hold them off for very long especially if they were firebenders. So her escape depended on how fast Aang, Katara, and Sokka could come.

Deciding that the element of surprise would be the best, she took one more deep breathe before shooting out a thin jet of water which wrapped itself around the ankle of one of her enemies. Doing exactly as Kai wanted to do, he tripped and fell into one of the other soldiers.

"What's wrong with you?" the second soldier exclaimed.

"It wasn't me," the previous soldier claimed. "Something wrapped around my ankle. It just came out of nowhere."

"Probably just a stray root or something," the leader suggested. "Nothing to stop for."

Kai took another deep breath and used the same thing but on the leader. He fell to the ground humiliated. "See Lieutenant Hao, it wasn't just me," the previously tripped soldier said.

"Be quiet Soldier Li," Lieutenant Hao ordered. He scanned his surroundings looking for the cause of the stumble because he unlike Li had felt the residue of water around his ankle.

Kai took the opportunity and sent a stream of water towards the group pushing them all back. "There, it's a waterbender," Hao said, pointing to Kai who was now running through the forest intending to lead the pack of soldiers on a wild goose chase. "Follow her," she heard Hao say.

She dodged in and out of the trees ducking the fiery hot flames aimed for her head. When she passed a creek, she tried freezing it hoping to slow down the soldiers.

When Kai started to run out of water to ward off incoming attacks, she veered her course towards the village. She had given as much time as she could to the others to find Appa and get packed. When she reached the clearing, Kai couldn't see any giant bisons waiting for her. Dreading the thoughts that that they had left without her and she no longer had any water.

Kai turned to the now very irritated soldiers who had noticed her stop. "You have nowhere to run now girl. You've run out of water. Let's face it, you've lost. If you come quietly now, you might still live."

"I may have run out of water, but not tricks," Kai said with a smirk.

"What do you-" the leader started but was blown backwards with a powerful gust of wind. He was very confused until he looked up and saw the girl was standing at the end of a kata stance. His eyes widened for a minute in recognition but then he smiled evilly. "Look boys, instead of finding coal we found a diamond. Why hello there miss Avatar's Apprentice, won't you join us."

A loud groan filled the sky and Kai said snarkly, "No thanks, my ride's here."

Aang saw while flying on Appa, Kai facing off against four Fire Nation soldiers. He started his descent so they could quickly pick her up and leave. But fireballs started rocketing into the sky at both him and Kai. If this continued, he wouldn't be able to land and would become a pile of ashes. Quickly thinking he yelled back, "Katara, lower a rope for Kai."

Kai saw the rope descend from the saddle at she immediately understood the plan. She began running forward gaining enough momentum to grab onto the approaching rope. She head on of the soldiers yell, "Don't let her get away with the Avatar."

But Kai had already calculated her only chance of getting away. When she felt she was close enough, Kai let go of all previous thoughts and made a jump for the rope.

She felt the rough material under her fingers and latched onto it for her life. Looking up, she saw Katara and Sokka hoisting her up closer and closer to the saddle.

A pair of arms under each armpit lifted her onto the saddle while the rope fell carelessly to the ground. Aang looked back to make sure Kai was securely in the saddle before climbing to a higher altitude out of range of the fire.

Kai scurried to the back of the saddle to get one more glance of her home before it was out of her eyesight. She would one day return back to the village, one day find out what happened to her tribe. But that was not today so she turned back to her new friends and asked, "So what's the plan?"

* * *

**So I really hope you liked it. Please review either telling me something you liked or something you didn't or if you honestly think it sucked. I just want to hear your input and if there is an suggestions for some future plots please tell me too. Thanks for reading!**


	4. Ch 4: The King of Omashu

**AN: A big thank you to everybody who reviewed last year. It really brought back the confidence that some people really like this story. I'm sorry if this is a bit later than I planned, but my cousin got married this weekend and I was one of her bridesmaid. Anyway onto the next chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar the Last Airbender**

**The King of Omashu**

It turned out the plan was to head to the North Pole, but first they were making a few stops before they got there. This included the city of Omashu. Kai, although protested at first about going to this city, had decided to let Aang do what he wanted. Throughout the two days that they had been flying, the three had filled Kai in on her previous adventures. It finally hit her how young Aang was, and how he had to save the world at the age of twelve. She thought she had it bad being fifteen, but it seemed ridiculous in contrast to Aang. But it seemed like he was being taken care of before Kai showed up. She even thought without her, that everything would've turned out ok. But now that she was here, Kai was determined to help Aang as much as she could. She was determined to better herself by being stronger than when she lived in her village and to try to keep her emotions in check. She would need that if she were to succeed.

They had just arrived at the cliff overlooking Omashu and she had to say that she was amazed. Never had she seen a place so large and advance. Katara and Sokka had similar reactions to Kai as Aang announced, "The Earth Kingdom city of Omashu. I used to always come here to visit my friend Bumi."

"Wow, we don't have buildings like this in the South Pole," Katara remarked.

"They have buildings that don't melt," Sokka said, amazed.

"I thought I had been to some big places, but this one is definitely the biggest. I didn't even they had cities this big," said Kai.

"I've heard that Ba Sing Se is even bigger, but I wouldn't know. Well let's go slow pokes. The real fun's inside the city," Aang reasoned.

"Wait Aang," Katara started, making Aang stop in mid slide down the mountain. "It could be dangerous if people find out you're the Avatar."

Kai kicked herself for not thinking of that herself. "You need a disguise," Sokka said.

"So what am I supposed to do?" Aang replied. "Grow a mustache?'"

It turned out that was exactly what Aang needed to do. Or at least use Appa's fur. When his disguise was all set Aang commented. "Uggh. This is so itchy. How do you live in this stuff?"

Kai observed, "Great, now you look just like my grandfather."

Katara added, "Technically Aang is 112 years old."

Aang shouted out in realization, "Wait, shouldn't Kai have a disguise too? I mean, couldn't it be dangerous if she was recognized too?"

Kai laughed, "I'm not the one with the giant blue arrow, that screams look at me I'm an airbender."Kai saw that Aang was still not satisfied. "Don't worry Aang, no one really knows who I am. If it makes you happy then, Katara give me your coat." Katara shrugged it off and handed it to Kai, who slipped it over herself. "See now I can be Sokka and Katara's cousin. Just a normal non bender like Sokka from the Southern Water Tribe. Happy?"

Aang nodded in response and used airbending to pick up and spin his staff, he hunched over and said, "Now let's get skippin', young whipper-snappers. The big city awaits."

They continued down to the city with Aang reminiscing about how great and friendly the city is. But just as he said that, the guards stationed outside earthbent some man's cart of cabbages into the pit below. They were all shocked, but Aang prodded them along by saying, "Just keep smiling."

"Maybe this isn't such a good idea," Kai remarked.

But Aang waved off her protests, "Don't worry, let me do the talking and follow my lead."

They approached the guard who said, bending a stone to hover over the group, "State your business."

Aang surprised the group by running up to him and poking the guard in the chest, "My business is my business, young man and none of yours. I've got half a mind to bend you over my knee and paddle your backside."

The gate guard was shocked at the audacity of the supposive old man, "Settle down, old timer. Just tell me who you are."

"Name's Bonzu Pippinpaddleopsicopolis, the third! And these are my grandkids," he said, gesturing to the others.

Katara stepped forward with a smile and said, "Hi. June Pippinpaddleopsicopolis. Nice to meet you."

Kai followed saying, "And I'm Jiang, her cousin," using her best friend's as a cover name.

The guard stared at them before saying, "You two seem like responsible young ladies. See that your grandfather stays out of trouble. Enjoy Omashu!"

"Thanks, we will," Kai said, relieved to have passed uncrushed.

The four started to walk into the city when the guard started up again, "Wait a minute. You're a strong young boy," he said,pointing to Sokka. "Show some respect for the elderly and carry your grandfather's bag."

Aang face lit up and said, "Good idea!" tossing the bag to Sokka, savoring every moment he could.

The four continued into the city glad that their act had worked. They walked to the other side of the street and stared at the large city in amazement. Kai was looking all around trying to grasp the real beauty of Omashu. She felt that she could stay there her whole life and still find something new. Aang then began telling them about the Omashu delivery system and how he and his friend Bumi would ride in the carts. This prompted Aang to actually take them up to the top and show them in person. All four of them squeezed into the box, coincidentally going from youngest to oldest, Aang, Katara, Kai, then finally Sokka. "One ride," Aang had pleaded. "Then we're off to the North Pole. Airbender's honor."

"It's sounded like fun at first," Katara said nervously. "But now I'm having second thoughts."

But it was too late, they were already bounding down the chute. Kai was screaming the whole way, partially because of the exhilaration but mostly because of the high speed they were going down. About halfway through, her face was buried into Katara's when she heard other people screaming too. She ventured a look back and saw a cart full of spears coming towards them. Screaming even louder, she ducked down again and felt Sokka behind her do the same. Aang yelled over the wind, "I'm on it!" He veered them off the track going on to various roofs and even through an army training session. They finally got back on the path only for Aang to speed them up using his airbending. The worst was that they discovered that they were going to crash into another standing cart. They weren't fast enough so they crashed into the cart and were flung out of their cart, but Aang used his airbending to get them back in. Then, they crashed into a store and ruined an artisan's pot. Kai yelled, "Sorry."

They finally ended up landing in a man's cabbage stand. Aang wig had completely been destroyed in the process and the cabbage man was yelling hysterically at them. "Two cabbages please," she heard Aang say with a sheepish smile.

"I don't think that helped," Kai said quietly to Aang, noticing the guards now surrounding them.

They were taken to the king's palace, to the throne room to be exact, where they were told they would receive their punishment. They were forced to kneel in front of a very old king. A guard announced, "Your majesty, these juveniles were arrested for vandalism, traveling under false pretenses, and malicious destruction of cabbages."

The cabbage man began jumping up and down screaming, "Off with their heads! One for each head of cabbage!"

Kai flinched in response, "Ok, so maybe we did mess up big time, but that's a little extreme," she thought.

The guard stopped this man's fuss by saying, "Silence, only the king can pass down judgement. What is your judgement, sire?"

All the kids had different reaction under scrutinization of the king. Sokka was whimpering slightly, Katara was smiling trying to get on the King's good side, Aang was looking to his side pouting, while Kai was nervously tapping her fingers and feet. "Throw them.." the king started and all the kids gasped thinking of the worse. "A feast," he finished.

Now the kids were very confused. Kai and Sokka were smiling though because they were glad they wouldn't be locked up forever, while Katara was giving Aang a very confused look.

A feast was brought before them and they all waited, even Sokka somewhat reluctantly, until the King ate first. He said, talking to Aang, "The people in my city have gotten fat from too feasts so I hope you don't mind your chicken with no skin."

Aang politely declined saying, "Thanks, but I don't eat meat."

So the King turned to Sokka, "How about you? I bet you like meat,"stuffing a drumstick in his mouth. Kai giggled as Sokka started chewing eagerly on it. She saw that Katara whispered something to Aang but she couldn't hear it so instead she just gave Sokka a pointed look. Sokka clearly got the message as he slowed down his eating and started to eat civilly again.

"So tell me, young bald one, where are you from?" the King asked.

"I'm from...Kangaroo Island!" Aang replied.

"Oh Kangaroo Island, eh? I hear that place is really hopping!"

An awkward silence followed with Sokka bursting out laughing about five seconds too late. "What! I thought it was funny!" he defended.

"What about the rest of you? Where are you from?

"We're all from Kangaroo Island," Kai said, thinking quickly. "We're friends from there."

"Really, well that is certainly intriguing, but all these jokes are making me tired. Guess it's time to hit the hay," the old man said.

Kai's body relaxed glad that they were now out of this situation. Maybe they really could get out of this free of all charges. But then all of sudden, two chicken legs flew towards both Kai and Aang. Aang was able to catch his use airbending, while Kai simply deflected the one coming towards her with her hand towards Sokka. The guards gasped at Aang's airbending skills. "There's an airbender in our presence, and not just any airbender! The Avatar!"

That's why he must have thrown the chicken at us Kai thought, "He probably caught onto that was the Avatar's Apprentice and Avatar and was testing us. Good thing I can't airbend too much. Maybe my charade can still work even if Aang's is up."

"Ok, you caught me," Aang said, starting to back up with his hands up. "I'm the Avatar doing my Avatar thing, keeping the world safe. Everything checks out. No firebenders here. So good job, everybody," now pulling everybody back towards the door. Love each other, respect all life, and don't run with your spears. We'll see you next time!"

But the guards had blocked their escape. Kai turned towards the king and said, "You can't keep us here! Let us leave!"

"Lettuce leaf?" the King questioned chewing on one.

"We're in serious trouble, this guy is nuts," Sokka whispered to Kai who nodded in response.

"Tomorrow the Avatar will face three deadly challenges. But for now the guards will show you to your chamber,"the old man said.

The guard and the king then began arguing over where this room was exactly was and what it was too. But eventually, they determine it to be a room that turned out to be quite nice. They were pushed into rather rudely, but when Kai looked back to glare, the wall had already shut.

"This is a prison cell?" Katara said, looking around. "But it looks so nice."

"He did say it was newly refurbished," Aang commented.

"Nice or not, we're prisoners," Kai said, plopping down on one of the four beds.

"I wonder what these challenges will be," Aang said worried, sitting down on the bed next to Kai.

"Well he did say they were deadly, so they can't be good," Sokka remarked.

"Way to be an optimist, don't worry Aang you'll do fine," Katara comforted. "Anyway we're not sticking around to find out. There's got to be some way out of here."

Aang jumped up suddenly yelling out, "The air vents!" pointing to the small holes scattered around the room.

"If you think that we going to fit through there, you're crazier than that King," Sokka said harshly.

"We can't," Aang said hopefully. "But Momo can."

Aang then proceeded to stuff a bloated Momo into the air vents for him to try to reach Appa. But his full stomach prevented him from getting no more than a few more inches in the small tube. Seeing that this wasn't working, Aang sat back down disappointed. "Eh, how's Appa supposed to save us anyway?" Kai asked trying to cheer Aang up.

"Appa's a ten ton flying bison. I'm sure he could figure something out."

Seeing that attempt didn't work, Katara said, "Well, no point of arguing about it now. Get some rest Aang. Looks like you'll need it for tomorrow."

They all climbed into their beds, muttered quiet goodnights, and the silence overtook the room. How was Aang supposed to complete these tasks Kai thought. Sure he's clever and all but still, these tasks were deadly. Kai wished that somehow she could help him, but for the time being it didn't seem like the king would allow for anyone to help him, even if she did reveal herself as the Avatar's Apprentice. Sighing, she turned over trying to get some shut eye before tomorrow.

But before she knew it, she was awoken by a guard silently standing over her bed. The guard held a gloved hand over her mouth so she would be quiet and not make any noise He gestured for her to get up, which she did and noticed both Sokka and Katara were also being similarly handled. But Aang was still in a deep sleep, drool spilling out his mouth. It also didn't seem like he was going to be woken up. Still slightly confused from being awoken so abruptly and early, the guard began to drag her towards a gap in the wall. But about halfway through, Kai realized that Aang was going to be left all alone did she start to struggle. But by this point, the guard's grip was already too firm for her to get anywhere. Soon the three and their escort were out of the cell, and the wall was bent back up behind them again. At this time the hands were removed from their mouths and Katara bravely asked, "Where are we going? Why isn't Aang coming?"

"Don't worry, the Avatar will be coming a separate way, and meeting the king from there," a guard reassured her.

They were being led down a hallway where they stopped and waited in front of another wall. Each of them were still being held by the arms by a guard. Kai nervously shifted as she waited in silence. She had no idea how Aang would react with them all being gone and only hoped that he would cooperate. That seemed like the thing to do for now. The wall was brought down in front of them, which Kai squinted at the gap as the she tried to adjust to the bright lighting. She saw that the king and Aang were standing facing each other, he heard the King say, "So I will give your friends some special souvenirs." The two guards holding Katara and Sokka slipped a ring for each of them which lit up and fused to their fingers. "Those delightful rings are made of pure jennamite, also known as creeping crystal. It's a crystal that grows remarkably fast. By nightfall your friends will be covered in it. Terrible thing really. But I'm not entirely heartless and will not give your friend over there," gesturing to Kai. "One too. That way if you do fail at least you won't be all alone. And I can stop it, but only if you cooperate."

Sokka exclaimed, "Ah,it's already creeping!"

Kai tried to help by tugging on the ring on Sokka's hand but it only got tighter and made Kai fall back from all the strength she was using to try to pull it off. Sokka rubbed his finger as it felt that his finger was going to pop out of his socket. "Just stop it," Sokka hissed. "It's not working."

Kai gave Aang an apologetic look as to say that at least she tried. Aang nodded that it was ok, but announced to the court, "I'll do what you want."

The king grinned in response. The first task turned out to be in a cave with giant pointed rocks and a waterfall. Aang was told that he had to retrieve the key to the king's lunchbox. Unfortunately, this key was in the middle of the waterfall. After a few tries which almost ended up with Aang became a human kabob, he was able to get the key by throwing a rock into the waterfall. At the end, Aang demanded for his friends again, but the king refused saying that he needed him to find his pet, Flopsie. So Aang went into the ring and began chasing after a small bunny with large ears that Kai thought was one of the cutest animals she had ever seen. But then a goat gorilla showed up behind him, and Kai yelled for him to forget the bunny and run for his life. It turned out that this giant animal was actually Flopsie and Aang was able to make him sit and then go to the King. Two tasks down, one to go Kai thought. Aang jumped up to Katara, Sokka, and Kai asking, "Guys are you okay?"

"Other than crystals encasing my body, doing great!" Katara said faintly.

A crystal growing on Sokka made him become unbalanced and fall over at that point. "I just wish you could be done with these tasks already. The sooner we get out of this city the better," Kai said.

Aang agreed and turned back to the king saying that he was ready for the next challenge. He had to pick between two large and very dangerous looking men to duel against. But Aang trying to be very clever, picked the king to duel against. It was a very wrong choice though as the king turned out to be an earthbending master. Guards had to hold Kai back during the task as she tried to dart out to somehow help Aang, especially during the times that it seemed like he was going to be crushed. Eventually, Aang was able to best the master and win the duel. They came back up to the place where Kai and the rest were standing. Kai gave Aang a hug very glad that he hadn't been injured in any of his challenges.

"There I did all your tasks," Aang said angrily, turning back to the King. "Now I want you to free my friends so we can leave. We have a lot to do and we need to get on our way."

The crazy king shook his finger at Aang and tsked. Aang and Kai both huffed simultaneously. "Not so fast, you might have noticed that your friend over there," he said gesturing to Kai. "Wasn't given a ring like the other two for a reason. Not because I was purely being kind but because I know that she is your Apprentice."

"Me," Kai said incredulously. "I'm not the Avatar's Apprentice. I'm just a regular non bender from the Southern Water Tribe." Kai's eyes were shifting the whole time but then she locked eyes with king as if having a glaring contest. "Fine, I am her," she said frustrated.

"How did you know?"

The king replied simply, "You two are much too similar to not guess that you are his Apprentice."

Kai retorted hotly, "What does that matter to you?"

"It seems like the Avatar's Apprentice," the king started.

"I have a name," Kai interrupted loudly. Noticing the shocked looks she was receiving from everyone she continued more softly. "My name is Kai, not Avatar's Apprentice. I'm a person too."

The king stared at her for a minute and she slyly backed away. "Alright then, it seems like Kai needs to do a task too. The Avatar and her will complete a task together."

Aang and Kai immediately had their objections. "What! You only said I had to do three tasks!"

"You can't just order people to do whatever you want!"

"It's not fair," they exclaimed at the same time.

"My kingdom, my rules," he said, folding his hands into his robes. '"Unless the Avatar wants his apprentice to go alone."

Aang looked at Kai. She was looking incredibly angry but at the same time trying to keep her emotions in check. She had crossed her arms and was looking a the floor muttering curse words. "No, I won't leave her, I'll help," Aang announced.

Bummi only nodded and motioned for the two to follow. They reached a room with strong slabs that nearly kissed the ceiling. Kai observed that they had been placed in a random fashion or that was what it seemed. "I left my favorite ring in this room when I was wandering. Since I'm so old, I can't remember where I place it. I want you to retrieve it."

"Seems easy enough," Kai said, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly.

"Oh, it it too easy for you?" the king questioned.

"No, that's not what I-" Kai began backtracking her words.

"Then you must retrieve it blindfolded and have your hands tied behind you. But don't worry the Avatar will be able to direct you from above, but he will be wearing earplugs so he won't be able to hear you," Bumi interrupted.

Aang let out a groan in frustration, "You just had to say that Kai."

"Well, I didn't mean that to happen, obviously," Kai said, rolling her eyes.

The king cleared his throat to bring the attention back to him. "Now, you must do this and I suggest that you do it quickly as the creeping crystals are working fast," gesturing to both Katara and Sokka.

"Just let us leave," Aang demanded one last time.

"I already offered you a lettuce leaf," the king stated.

Kai face palmed. "Can we at least have a minute to plan?"

The king nodded in return. Kai gestured Aang over. "You're going to have to lead me through the maze. Just give me general directions like left or right, try to estimate how far I have to walk too. Ok?"

Aang nodded. "I really hope that I don't end up with a broken nose or something," she muttered.

They broke from their little huddle and Aang and Kai were led their separate ways. The Avatar stood with the king, Sokka, and Katara on a stone platform above the maze. This allowed Aang to have a bird's eye view of the obstacles that Kai would be able to face. Unfortunately Kai did not have this advantage, and she led to the other end of the room. A thought just struck Kai and she yelled, "Aang, remember that your left is my right and vice versa."

Aang nodded as one would do in response, but in reality he couldn't hear a thing Kai said because his ear plugs were already in and he was just looking up and down. But think that he heard it, Kai said, "I'm ready," and she was promptly blindfolded and her wrists were tied behind her.

Hesitantly, she took a step forward in a direction that she remembered was the entrance. Aang shouted out the first direction, "You're doing great, just keep straight for about 6 paces and turn a sharp right."

Kai did exactly this, but instead of walking still on the path, she ran straight into a wall. She cursed and Aang yelled, "I said go right."

"I did go right," Kai muttered, but tried it again and promptly ran into the wall again. Aang yelled yet again, "Why did you do that! I said right! Not left! Stop trying to hurt yourself!"

"I did go right!" she yelled back as if he could hear her.

"Try going right this time, Kai," Aang yelled.

"Why not I try left instead," Kai thought on a whim. Very cautiously, she turned about face and took a hesitant step forward. Having not hit any wall, she took another step directly in front of the first. The lack of impact gave Kai more confidence and she started walking forward faster, "Finally you go right," Aang cried exasperated.

"That was my right Aang, you didn't hear the thing I said about directions being opposite," she muttered. "Now I'm going to have to translate all of them."

"Keep going straight," Aang directed. "Now turn left!"

Kai turned sharply on her heel and continued down the path to her right. This continued for some time, Kai going the fastest she could under the circumstances, for consideration of Katara and Sokka. As it went on, walking like this almost became natural, because she could trust that Aang wasn't intentionally running her into walls, because that would only harm them both. Kai physically, Aang emotionally. Kai could already see how attached he was to the two water tribe siblings, especially Katara. She knew of the crush Aang had on Katara recognising the signs before her and Shen had begun dating. The unconscious long looks at the other, the extra care he took for Katara not to get hurt. She hoped for the best if the feelings were unrequited.

Kai had finally reached the end of the maze because now Aang was directing her towards the ring. "Just step forward, now turn a bit to the left, no that's too much, turn back a bit. That's perfect, just stay right there."

Kai stopped in a very uncomfortable position. Her shoulders were aching from her arms being behind her back for so long."Now turn around and squat and pick up the should be right there."

She very awkwardly bent down and felt for the ring. Sweeping her hands across the floor, she felt the point of something that had to be the ring. With a little difficulty, she finally grabbed the ring. "Aha!" Kai yelled. "I got your stupid ring. I did it."

A guard walked over and removed the bindings. "Congratulations," the king said. "Now come up here and give it to me."

"Wait, what do you mean?" Kai asked confused.

"Come up here to the platform and give me the ring," the king responded.

"Fine, where are the stairs?" she asked not seeing any.

"There aren't any," the king replied simply.

"Then how do I get up there?" she asked, pointing to the platform.

"Well, you're the Avatar's Apprentice aren't you?"

"Yeah," Kai said hesitantly.

"So you're an airbender. Just airbend up here."

Kai gaped at him, "I think you're mistaken. I'm not a master airbender, I'm barely a beginner. I can't get up there."

"Well, you'll have to learn, and soon, because those crystals are going fast and you haven't finished your task."

"Can't you just earthbend a staircase? That would be easier for both of us," Kai bargained.

"No, you have to get up there on your own."

"Can I have Aang help me?"

"Sure, but you must know that he still has his earplugs in and he can't just airbend you up there."

Kai replied with a particularly annoyed, "Fine." Thinking for a minute, she started jumping up and down to catch Aang's attention, because as a normal twelve year old boy would do, he had dazed off. He finally noticed Kai and all the commotion she was making. When this happened, she put her plan into action. She motioned to herself and then jumped up in the air, then pointed to the platform. She continued to mime this until Aang said, "You want me to blow you up here?"

Kai shook her head in response. She changed her mime slightly. Now she pretended to run, then jumped, and then did the only airbending move she could do. "You want me to teach you to airbend yourself up there?" Aang questioned confused.

Kai nodded with a childish grin on her face. "But why?" Aang asked in response. She only had to point to the King when Aang finally understood. "You need to take a deep breath, clear your mind, and urge your body to propel itself forward."

She looked very nervous, but Kai started the motions. By the end, she only went a little bit higher than one would normally jump. The platform was clearly out of her reach. "I can't do this," she thought. Her shoulders slumped.

"Try it again," Aang ordered seeing Kai's disappointment. "This time get a very good running start and clear your mind."

Kai continued this about three or four times making adjustments and getting higher each time. Finally, the time that Kai had backed up to the farthest she could, her hands grazing the stone platform and she latched onto it. With much struggle, she slowly pulled herself onto the platform, careful not to drop the ring. That would just be counterproductive. When she got up, Kai dusted herself off casually. Inside, she felt so accomplished learning a much more advance move with minimal instruction. "There," Kai said proudly. "I've got your ring, now can we please leave."

"You've completed my task of retrieving the ring and all my other ones. I just have one more question for the Avatar to answer."

"That's not fair," Aang exclaimed. "You said you would release my friends if I finished your tests and if Kai did hers."

"Oh, but what's the point of tests if you didn't learn anything?" the King reasoned.

"Oh, come on," Sokka said exasperated, now that he was almost completely encased in crystals.

The king put up his hand to silence Sokka, "Answer this one question and I will set your friends free. What... is my name? From the looks of your friends I'd say you only have a few minutes."

The king walked away without any further clues or explanations. Kai gaped at the retreating figure. "How are you supposed to know his name?"

"Think about the challenges you did, he did ask the question to you. Maybe it's some kind of riddle," Katara suggested.

"I got it!" Sokka suddenly.

"Yeah," Aang urged.

"He's an earthbender right? Rocky! You know because of all the rocks."

Kai snorted, "If you use that kind of logic then Earthy would be a good one too."

Sokka only glared but Katara said, "We're going to keep trying, but those are some good backups."

"Okay, so back to the challenges. I got a key from a waterfall. I saved his pet. And I had a duel."

"And what did you learn," Katara prompted, while a crystal dug into her check.

"Well, everything was different than I expected," Aang replied.

"And?" Kai asked this time.

"Well, it wasn't straightforward," the Avatar thought out loud. "To solve those tests, I had to think differently than I usually would. I know his name."

They all were led back into the throne room where Aang started, "I solved the question the same way I solved the challenges. As you said a long time ago, I had to open my brain to the possibilities. Bumi, you're a mad genius."

To Kai's shock Aang ran up and hugged the King, but then she realized that Bumi was the name of Aang's old friend from Omashu. "Oh Aang, it's good to see you. You haven't changed a bit. Literally."

But Katara brought the attention of the two friends back to herself and her brother who was still in the crystals by saying, "Uh, over here."

"Little help?" Sokka added.

King Bumi easily broke the crystals using earthbending and caught one of the crystals in his hand. He took a bite out of it, "Jennamite is made of rock candy, delicious."

"So this crazy old King is your friend Bumi?" Kai asked.

"Who are you calling old?" Bumi asked, pausing for a minute. "Ok, I'm old."

"Why did you do all of this instead of just telling Aang who you were?" Sokka questioned.  
"First of all, it's pretty fun to mess with people," Bumi answered with a snort. " But I do have a reason. Aang, you have a difficult task ahead. The world's changed in the hundred years you've been gone. It's the duty of the Avatar to restore balance to the world by defeating Fire Lord Ozai. You have much to learn. You must master the four elements and confront the Fire Lord. And when you do, I hope you think like a mad genius. And it looks like you're in good hands. You'll need your friends help to defeat the Fire Nation. And you'll need Momo too."

"Can I ask you a question then?" Kai ventured. "Why did you have me do a challenge too?"

"It's your job as the Apprentice,Kai, to work side by side Aang and always watch out for eachother. You are his protector, but to do so you need to have complete trust in one and another even when the situation can be rather difficult. But I can see that you two on your way to being great friends."

Kai and Aang smiled at eachother before Aang said, "Thank you for your wisdom, but before we leave, I have a challenge for you."

Bumi and Aang went on one more ride down the mail chutes before the group left Omashu. They bid farewell to the King and Aang in particular hoped that they would see each other again soon.

**AN: Thank you all for reading, I really appreciate it. I'm planning on skipping the next episode, "Imprisoned" because I really couldn't think of how to change that episode. It's very Katara centered, and I think it's a very good episode for her development and I don't want to change that. It would be mainly Kai tagging along with Sokka and Aang. So unless you have a burning desire for me to write that episode the next chapter will be the "Winter Solstice Part 1". Please review! **


	5. Ch 5: The Winter Solstice Part 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender. If I did I think I would die. But as you see I have updated so I am obviously alive.**

* * *

"The Winter Solstice Part 1: The Spirit World"

After the little adventure at Omashu, the group began to move north stopped in a Earthbending town, that apparently had been taken over by the Fire Nation. There they had met a boy named Haru, who Katara had an instant connection to. But with their luck, they had gotten Haru captured for Earthbending, which apparently was illegal in his town. Which Kai couldn't believe that the Fire Nation would make such a big part of a person, illegal. That's why she guessed she went along with the crazy plan to break, Haru and later the other prisoners, out.

While waiting for the original plan to go into action, Kai was able to learn some more airbending forms from Aang, advancing fairly quickly, something she was very proud of. Then once they got to the rig, where Katara and Haru were, they decided to change their plan and break all the earthbenders out. She was very nervous that the plan wouldn't work and the four of them would have to fight their way off the ship alone. But once the coal came up, the earthbenders joined the fight. Kai was able to take out a few Fire Nation soldiers on her own and it turned out to be a victorious day. The only bad part of it seemed to be that Katara had lost her mother's necklace. Something that had been very devastating for her, but it also made Kai wish that she had a keepsake like that could be with her wherever she went, and reminded her of home and safety. Her guitar was the closest thing to that, since Kai's parents had given it to her for her eleventh birthday. Her friends had written little messages or drawings on the inside of the case throughout the years. Even though it wasn't always with her, these writings had always put a smile on her face when rereading them.

Now, the four were all traveling on Appa again. It seemed odd that Kai was now used to fly on a giant bison. But now it didn't even bother that she was thousands of feet up in the air, maybe it was the airbender in her coming out. She, with Katara, were lounging in the saddle while Aang was flying and Sokka sitting across from them. "Those clouds look so soft, don't they? Like you could just jump down and land on a big, soft, cuddly heap?" Katara said dreamily.

"Maybe you should give it a try," Sokka joked, and Kai laughed.

Katara replied sarcastically, "You're hilarious."

"I'll try," Aang said suddenly, quickly abandoning his post as driver and jumping into the clouds, laughing going down.

The others watched Aang doing this over the saddle. Sokka turned to Kai and asked, "You want to follow?"

"Nah, I'll stay with my feet firmly planted on good old Appa here," Kai said, patting Appa.

Aang flew up on his glider and landed behind the three and announced, "It turns out clouds are made of water," using airbending to dry himself out and in the process sprinkle the others with water.

"Uggh, a little warning next time Aang," Kai said waterbending some of the water that had landed on her sleeve.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly.

"Hey, what's that?" Katara asked, looking ahead.

The forest that they had been flying over had changed to black with patches of green on the outside. "It's like a scar," Sokka commented.

They flew down to this place, to get a better look at the place. It turned out there were burnt down trees and charred stumps but that was the only thing on the gray land. "Listen," Kai pointed out. "It's so quiet. There's no life anywhere."

Aang had wandered slightly off from the rest of the group so Katara asked, "Aang? Are you okay?"

Sokka and Kai were walking together, but it was Kai who pointed out the footsteps on the ground. "Fire Nation!" he yelled. "Those evil savages make me sick! They have no respect for-"

But Katara cut him off mid rant and shushed him. He crossed his arms and hotly asked, "What? I'm not allowed to be angry?"

Katara only had to point to Aang for an explanation. Both Sokka's and Kai's faces softened when they saw Aang's state. He was kneeling picking up some of the ash grass. "Why would anyone do this? How could I let this happen?"

Kai walked over and knelt down next to Aang putting a hand on his back, "Aang, you didn't cause this. This wasn't your fault. This was the Fire Nation's."

"No, it's my fault. It's the Avatar's job to protect nature. But I don't know how to do my job."

"Aang, the Avatar can't be everywhere at the same time. Sometimes bad things are going to happen. You can't prevent everything that happens. This isn't your fault," said Kai.

"Besides," Katara said, coming on to the other side of Aang. "We're going to the North Pole to find a teacher to help you."

"A waterbending teacher. But there's no one who can teach me to be the Avatar. Monk Gyatso said that Avatar Roku would help me."

"The Avatar before you?" Sokka asked. "He died over a hundred years ago. How are you supposed to talk to him?"

"I don't know," Aang replied sadly.

"Hey, think about this, every Avatar before you had to figure out the same thing, and they did that," Kai tried to cheer up Aang.

"But what if I'm an exception? What if I'm a bad Avatar?"

"You're not going to be a bad Avatar," Kai stated.

"How can you know for sure?" he asked, turning away from Kai.

"Because you care too much. Your determined not to fail. It's me that you really have to worry about," Kai tried to joke.

"Don't worry Kai, you'll be a great Apprentice. If you're not it's my fault," Aang replied depressed again.

"Ugh, I give up," she said, standing up walking away from Aang passing Katara on the way. "Why don't you try to cheer him up? He's obviously not listening to me."

"Exactly my plan," she said, picking up an acorn from the ground.

Kai stalked over to Sokka while Katara threw an acorn at Aang's help, in some way of trying to cheer him up. She began talking to him about all the acorns and how that someday they would grow into an entire forest. Folding his fist around the acorn, he smiled at Katara. Yup, Aang definitely had a huge crush on Katara. If she couldn't cheer him up with a whole conversation but Katara with a few sentences. She almost felt a bit jealous that Katara could do that but not herself. But, she had to remind her that's how crushes worked.

Kai then noticed a man approaching the group and Sokka asked, "Hey, who are you?"

"When I saw the flying bison," he started to explain, "I thought it was impossible. But those markings...are you the Avatar, child?"

Aang looks at Katara and she nods that he seems safe to reveal his identity. He nods in return. "And are you his Apprentice?" he asked Katara.

"No, that would be Kai," she said gesturing to Kai, who raised her hand in response. He nodded and said, "It's good to see that the Avatar has people to help him but I'm afraid that for the reason I'm asking it's only the Avatar that can help. My village desperately needs your help."

This caught all of their attentions and they followed the man back to the village, which turned out to be named Senlin. The old man introduced them to the leader and told them who they were. The leader then explained about how his village kept being attacked for no reason by a spirit named Hei Bai. He thought that since Aang was the Avatar he could communicate with this spirit and hopefully stop it from destroying the village and taking some of their people. But, Kai saw that he was looking very nervous about this so she called him to the side and asked him about this. He replied saying, "Yeah, that might be because I don't know anything at all about the Spirit World. It's not like there's someone to teach me this stuff."

"So...can you help these people?" Katara asked.

"I have to try, don't I? Maybe whatever I have to do...will just come to me."

"I think you can do it, Aang," Katara said with a smile.

"Yeah, we're all going to be eaten by a giant spirit monster," Sokka said, still fakely smiling.

"Sokka, way to give encouragement," Kai hissed. "You'll be fine Aang. I can be right by your side to help you."

"Thanks for the offer Kai, but I want to do this on my own, since I'm pretty sure that you can't contact the Spirit World and I don't want you to get hurt in the crossfire."

"I understand, so good luck Aang," she said with a thumbs up.

"Excuse me," the leader interrupted them again. "You're the Avatar's Apprentice, right?"

"Yes, sir," Kai replied politely.

The man smiled. "And you're from the Southeastern Water Tribe. Correct?"

"Yes, I am," Kai said eagerly, but at the same time slightly confused. "Why do you ask? Do you have any information about what happened to my tribe?"

"Sadly, I don't," the man said. Kai's face fell. "But I believe that there are two people that you may know that do. Follow me."

Kai looked quickly to her three friends. They were silently urging her to go and follow that man because their curiosity was sparked as well as Kai's. Sokka only hoped that this would be good though, because he understood what very well could've happened to Kai's tribe.

The leader led her to a corner of the room that had escaped her initial scan. There she saw two people, huddled sitting together with their foreheads touching, in deep conversation. They were dressed in a similar blue as Kai. Her heartbeat quickened as she recognized them as part of her tribe. The leader cleared his throat and the two turned around to face him and Kai. She then saw two faces she doubted that she would ever see again. "Chao...Jiang..." she managed to choke out.

They were clearly surprised about this encounter too. "Kai," Jiang said with tears of joy in her eyes.

All three best friends embraced each other. Kai almost choked the other two with the grip she was using. "I thought I would never see you again," Kai said breathless.

"Me too," Chao muttered.

When Kai finally let go of them, she got a good look at her two friends. Jiang was wearing her usual outfit, a blue tunic similar to Kai's but instead of a white sash around the middle, it was green and her tunic was slightly longer than Kai's and didn't wear any arm wraps. She was taller than Kai, who was a little bit on the shorter side. Her long black hair was worn in two loose braids. Instead of pure, light, blue eyes as Kai's hers were a shade or two darker and had green specks. Chao was much taller than both Kai and Jiang as he was one of the tallest boys of their village. His dark hair swooped just above his eyes which were a vibrant dark blue. His blue tunic was shorter than Kai's and a thin dark blue ribbon tied around the waist. Kai then noticed the hands that connected the two to each other and squealed like any typical teenage girl in delight. "You're finally only took you long enough."

Jiang could only sheepishly smile back. But a cold sinking feeling then took over her, and she nervously asked, "What happened to you guys? I mean is anyone else ok? Where is the rest of the tribe?"

"I knew we would get to this," Chao said grimly. "I don't know what happened to most of the tribe. The waterbenders were taken a put on a ship and I think some of the warriors were put on a separate ship. We were able to escape, but I don't know about the rest of our tribe."

"So, are all the waterbenders ok? I mean did we lose anybody? Is Shen with you?" looking behind the two for her boyfriend.

"We were able to get off the boat all ok, but we were forced to split at one point, so from that point on I don't know. But most of us we're able to escape in groups of two or three so I bet that everybody is fine," Jiang reassured.

"But since they attacked so fast, we got split up from Shen. I'm sorry Kai, I don't know where he is, but I do think that he's safe," Chao said sadly. Shen was one of his best friends so it must be hard for him to be without him for so long.

Her heart stopped pounding a bit at these comments, relieved at the knowledge that part of her tribe had survived the attack, that she had caused. At least Shen was safe, to her knowledge and her closest friends. "What are you doing here, Kai? We had heard rumors that the Avatar was alive and so was his Apprentice, so we thought maybe you were together," Jiang asked.

"You're right. He's the kid with the giant blue arrow on his head. Here follow me, and I'll introduce you to him and my friends that I met with him,"Kai said, leading them across the room.

"This is Aang, Katara, and Sokka," pointing respectively to each person. "And these are my friends Chao and Jiang."

"Nice to meet you," they all said.

The sun was setting though, and Aang had to go out to try to somehow communicate with this spirit monster. Kai gave him a one last chance to back out saying that it was ok if he didn't feel ready for this. But, Aang was determined to do this, so Katara, Sokka, and Kai stood behind the window and sadly watched him. Chao and Jiang stood nervously with the leader and older man, behind the three. Aang started out saying, "Hello, Spirit? Can you hear me? This is the Avatar speaking. I'm here to try to help stuff."

"This isn't right. We can't sit here and cower while Aang waits for some monster to show up,"Sokka said to the group.

"If anyone can save us, he can," the old man said.

"He shouldn't have to face this alone," Sokka replied.

"Sokka, we're already offered Aang our help. He wanted to do this on his own. We need to respect his decision," Kai said, trying to soothe Sokka's worries.

"Still..." he trailed off.

They saw Aang looking very confused wandering through the village trying to find Hei Bai or something. They heard him say, "I hereby ask you to leave this village in peace," and started to walk back towards the village hall.

But then, Kai saw the spirit materialize behind Aang so she yelled, "Aang, behind you!"

He turned around and saw the huge Hei Bai and he tried to talk the spirit out of destroying the village. The leader commented, "The Avatar's methods are...unusual."

"It doesn't seem too interested in what he's saying. Maybe we should go help him," Sokka suggested.

"No. Only the Avatar stands a chance against Hei Bai.," the old man said.

"Aang will figure out the right thing to do, Sokka," Katara reassured her brother.

But, they only continued to see Aang fail at solving the problem. At one point, the spirit pushed him back into a roof of a house. Kai winced, knowing that probably hurt a lot. Sokka was apparently fed up at this point and said, "That's it, he needs help," jumping out the low window and running towards Aang.

"Sokka, wait," Katara screamed after her brother.

Kai yelled for him to get back, but he didn't listen to Aang's or her pleas. Before they even knew it, Sokka was snatched up by the spirit who started to run out of the village. This was the breaking point for both Kai and Katara and they ran out of the door calling for Sokka, but the spirit had disappeared into the forest with Aang following on his glider. Kai made a move to follow after them, but the leader caught her shoulder and said, "You'll never catch up to them, they're too fast and far away. It's better to wait for the Avatar to come back. He'll find your friend."

She shrugged his hand off her shoulder and walked back towards her friends and the village hall. Kai was about halfway there, when a wave of dizziness took over her and she started stumbling trying to fight off this unexpected feeling. But, it only got stronger the longer she fought it. Her friends had noticed Kai's unusual stumbling and they began walking over to her. Kai leaned one hand against a nearby house to try and regain the control of her body. It was no use, and she no longer had any more energy to fight it, and fell to the ground unconscious.

"Kai!" Chao yelled out, seeing her fall to the ground. He rushed over to her, catching her head before it hit the ground.

Jiang and Katara also rushed over. "What happened?" asked Katara.

"I don't know," Chao said, slightly panicking. "I just saw her walk over and she just collapsed. Nothing else happened."

Chao felt her neck and found a steady beat so he assumed that she was as fine as she could be. He then tried gently slapping her cheeks to try to wake her up. But, she didn't even stir a bit. Jiang bent a stream of water and dropped it on her face to see if that would work on waking Kai up. She lay still. "She won't wake up. Do you think something's wrong? What should we do?" Jiang asked visibly concerned.

"I don't know," Katara said. "This hasn't happened before, right?" The other two shook their heads. "I guess the best thing we can do is wait this out."

Katara looked out into the forest willing for Aang, or Sokka to come out of it. But like Kai, nothing moved. She saw Chao pick up Kai from the corner of her eye and start to carry her towards the village hall. Jiang followed him so Katara was left alone abandoned by all her friends. She moved towards the village gate and sat down, wrapping her arms around her knees, wishing that everything would turn out alright.

* * *

"Uggh, what happened?" Kai thought, slowly blinking her eyes open. Her head was pounding. She felt weaker and like a part of her was missing. Kai propped herself up on her elbows, trying to think of what happened that made her feel like this. She remembered the spirit attacking the village, Sokka running out to help Aang, and then him being captured. Then walking back to the village, but nothing else. But, Kai then remembered her dizziness. She groaned in response, remembering how weak she felt. She then felt like she was being attacked as something jumped and wrapped its arms around her body. "You're ok!" a feminine voice yelled out. When the weight moved away from her, she saw that it was Jiang kneeling in front of her.

"You wouldn't wake up," Chao explained. "We kept trying but nothing worked. You were out for about seven hours. Do you know what happened that made you pass out?"

Kai strained her memory trying to think of something that made her do this, but nothing could come up as an explanation. She shook her head, so Chao only sighed and passed her a glass of water. "Are Aang and Sokka back yet?" she asked.

"No," Jiang replied. "We haven't seen them and Katara's outside waiting for them."

At this response Kai began moving as to get up and said, "I'm going out to search for them." But, then the headache that was still there intensified. She winced at the pain and Jiang gently pushed her down again, "You're not going anywhere right now. You look like you're still weak. You need to rest here longer before you go out and do anything."

"Fine," Kai agreed. "Maybe you can tell me about what happened to you two after and during the attack, while I rest," she suggested.

Chao started, "Well first after we left you, we ran down to the beach and we saw three large Fire Nation ships docked there, and the fighting was already well on the way. It was chaos. I tried getting all the waterbenders together to fight like the elders had asked me, but we were so inexperienced and there were a ton of firebenders and other soldiers. We were all taken at one point or another and put on one of the ships. I don't know what happened to all the other people, I saw a few of the warriors put on a different ship, but..." he trailed off.

"The elders made me hide," Kai started to explain her side of the story. "They told me that it was my duty to hide because I couldn't get caught. I wanted to, but they wouldn't give me any other choice," she said leaving the part about Shen out, as she felt that was private. "I heard that they were looking for the Avatar's Apprentice from my hiding spot, but I didn't even come out for that. When I came back to the village, I couldn't find anybody or any evidence of a fight down at the beach other than the occasional ash mark and discarded weapon."

"They must have taken all the non-benders on a different ship," Chao reasoned. "They may have thought you were hiding as a non-bender."

Kai thought to herself knowing her friend would object if she said this out loud but, she knew that it was her fault her parents and friends' families were missing. If she hadn't been a coward, then this wouldn't have happened.

"They had knocked us out, but when we woke up. They told us that they were looking for the Avatar's Apprentice. None of us would betray you or tell them that you weren't there. They tried bribing us, but still everyone was still strong. I was very proud of us at that moment," Chao said.

"They said that even if we didn't say they would find out soon enough, once we reached the Fire Nation. Chao guessed they had the same test that they used on you," said Jiang. "We knew that we had to get out before we reached there, so we came up with a plan and miraculously it worked. We had to swim all the way to the shore, but with the use of our combined waterbending, we made it. Everybody was so overjoyed that we actually did it."

"That's actually when we got together," Chao added.

"Yeah, Chao just came out of nowhere and kissed me claiming that there was no better time than now," said Jiang blushing.

"All 16 of us decided that the best thing to do would be to go back to the village somehow try to find everybody else on the way and find you too. It was the only plan we could come up with. We started traveling as a group, but we were forced to split up because we ran into a battalion of Fire Nation soldiers. That's when we got split up from Shen. We were traveling for a while, but Jiang and I didn't have any supplies, and we ran into this town, who offered us refugee. We've been here for about a week to rest and gather our supplies before we start out traveling again."

"Wow, you guys are amazing. I can't believe you escaped a ship all on your own," Kai said.

"So what happened to you when we were gone?" Chao asked.

Kai began explaining all that had happened to her since the attack. First living on her own, but then meeting Aang and starting to travel with him. She talked about going to Omashu and Aang teaching her airbending. She talked about how it was easier for her to airbend sometimes then waterbend. Kai was starting to feel a bit better, so she offered to show Jiang and Chao her airbending skills so far.

They walked outside slightly away from where everybody else was so she wouldn't accidentally hurt anybody. "Ok, so I'm going to show you the first move I learned, which is a simple air blast." She went through the movement perfectly, but nothing happened. Frustrated, she tried it again, but nothing happened. "I'll try a different one," she said. She tried moving her hands in a circle to make a sphere of air, but still nothing happened. "Why isn't this working?" she asked out loud to no one in particular.

"It's ok, Kai, we believe that you can do this," Jiang comforted.

"No, I got this down," she tried bending water from a nearby barrel to check that her bending was broken or something, and she was able to do it. She kept trying those airbending moves, but it only resulted in her getting more and more angry.

"Maybe you can try later," Chao suggested.

"Fine," she said, stalking off towards Katara. She was currently stroking Appa, with a distant look on her face. "Hey," she said, coming up behind her.

"Kai, you're awake!" she said, giving her friend a hug. "We were really worried about you. How are you feeling?"

"The best I can, I guess," she said shrugging her shoulders. "I still feel weaker and I can't seem to airbend for some reason. But for the most part, doing ok. How about you?"

"I miss them," Katara replied sadly. "I don't know where they are. I was just thinking about going on Appa to search for them. I'm worried that they are hurt or something."

"I'll come with you," Kai said. "Do you think it would be ok if Chao and Jiang came along because I just saw them again and I probably won't be seeing them for a while after we leave?"

"Sure, I guess the more eyes on the lookout the better," answered Katara.

They all climbed up onto Appa with Katara driving since she had the most experience. As soon as Appa took off the ground, Jiang had wrapped her arms around the side of the saddle and was squeezing her eyes shut. Kai noticed this and asked, "Are you ok, Jiang?"

"Fine," she said in an uncharacteristically high voice. "I am just a bit nervous to be flying."

"You'll be fine. If you really are nervous just hold onto the side of saddle. It really does help," Kai said giving her friend a reassuring squeeze on her arm.

She then went to the other side of the saddle and leaned over the side a bit to look for the two boys. She scanned the forest for any sign of orange or Water Tribe blue, but she didn't see anything. They traveled like this for about for a while scouring any place in the forest. When it started to get a bit later Kai gently said, "I think we're going to turn back Katara. We can look for them tomorrow morning if they're not back by then. I'm sorry."

Katara nodded silently, obviously having her thoughts in a different place and turned back towards the village. They landed with the sun starting to set behind them. The four started to walk towards the village hall where they would have to wait if Hei Bai came back. Kai was finally starting to feel a bit more normal, so she was thinking maybe she could defend the village since Aang wasn't back. But just as they were about to go into the building, Kai saw Aang flying towards them. She tapped Katara's shoulder and said, "Look Katara, it's Aang."

When he landed, the two girls ran up to him and hugged him for relief that he was now back. "Where's Sokka?" Katara asked hopefully.

"I'm not sure..." Aang trailed off.

Aang decided that he should wait for the spirit again, and see if he could find Sokka that way. He wanted Kai and Katara to go back to safety so they wouldn't get hurt. Both were rather reluctant, but Aang had insisted. He was standing out at the entrance of the village when the spirit suddenly appeared to his left and completely destroyed one of the houses. Aang didn't retreat though so Kai yelled, "Aang, what are you doing?! Run!"

But now, Hei Bai was coming towards the village hall when Aang jumped over it and touched its forehead. She saw Aang talking to the spirit, and then left an acorn at the bottom of its feet, who picked it up, turned into a giant panda spirit, and left peacefully. It turned out that Hei Bai was the spirit of the forest that was burned down and was merely upset about it.

Branches of Bamboo grew in the entrance to the village after the spirit left. There walked out Sokka and several other villagers. "Sokka!" Katara yelled, giving her brother a hug.

"What happened?" asked Sokka visibly confused.

"You were trapped in the Spirit World for 24 hours. How are you feeling?" Katara asked concerned.

"Like I seriously need to use the bathroom," Sokka replied, running off to find one.

The village leader came up to the three and said, "Thank you, Avatar. If there was only a way to repay you for what have you done."

Sokka now back from his bathroom break said, "You could give us some supplies, and some money."

"Sokka!" Katara hissed.

"What? We need stuff."

"It would be an honor to help you prepare for your journey," the leader politely replied.

"Thank you for taking in and helping my friends too," Kai added, bowing to him.

"It was my pleasure. I wish I could help you and your tribe more though, after I heard what you went through."

"You have done more than enough. You're kindness means a lot," said Kai.

The leader walked away from the group and Katara said, "I'm so proud of you, Aang. You figured out what to do, all on your own."

"Great job buddy, see you won't be a bad Avatar," Kai commented.

Aang smiled, "Actually, I did have a little help. There's something else."

"What is it?" Sokka asked.

"I need to talk to Roku," Aang expanded. "I think I found a way to contact his spirit."

"That's great," Kai said.

"Creepy, but great," Sokka said.

"There's a temple on a crescent-shaped island. If I go there on the solstice, I'll be able to speak with him."

"But the solstice is tomorrow," Katara said alarmed

Aang fidgeted before adding, "Yeah, and there's one more problem. The island is in the Fire Nation."

* * *

**AN: So here you go, the latest chapter of The Avatar's Apprentice. I really could use some constructive criticism for my story. I'm really trying not to make Kai a Mary Sue so if she is tell me. Please review, because more reviews mean a faster chapter update. **


	6. Ch 6: The Winter Solstice Part 2

**Here's the next chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: the Last Airbender**

* * *

The Winter Solstice Part 2: Avatar Roku

"Kai, Kai, wake up," Katara said, shaking Kai's back.

"Lemmme sleep, too early," she muttered in response, pulling the blanket over her head trying to make Katara go away.

"You're going to want to get up for this. Aang is trying to leave without us. I think he is trying to go to that island in the Fire Nation," Katara explained.

After Aang had explained about what he saw in the Spirit World, he really wanted to go and talk to Roku. But Sokka had gotten out the map, and they found the island. They figured out it would be very difficult to make it there in one day, and with it being in the Fire Nation, it was sure to be a lot tougher. They weighed the advantages against the odds and decided that, it would be better not to take the trip there and find out some other way for Aang to communicate with Roku. Kai should've noticed that Aang agreed rather reluctantly. He must have already been thinking about this. She pushed the blanket off herself and followed Sokka and Katara outside. Aang was struggling with getting Appa to follow him, so at least Appa knew the right thing to do. Aang said frustrated, "Let's go Appa! Come on boy! Look I'm sorry but Katara, Kai, and Sokka aren't coming to the Fire Nation with us. If they got hurt, I'd never forgive myself. So get your big butt off the ground and let's go!"

Sokka said, walking out so Aang could now see him and the others, "I think his big butt is trying to tell ya something."

"Please don't go," Katara added. "The world can't afford to lose you to the Fire Nation. Neither can I."

"We'll figure out another way for you to talk to Roku," Kai pleaded. "It's too dangerous there."

"But I have to talk to Avatar Roku to find out what my vision means and I think soon!. I don't know any other way to talk to him and it might take months to figure that out. I need to get to the Fire Temple before the sun sets on the solstice. That's today!" he said, climbing up onto Appa, trying to lead him away from the group.

"We're not letting you go into the Fire Nation, Aang," Katara said, while the three ran in front of Appa to stop him.

"At least not without your friends," Sokka added. "We got your back."

"Where you go, we go," Kai finished.

They quickly got ready for their departure, grabbing some stuff they had left in the village hall. Kai quickly ran up to Jiang and Chao, who had just started to wake up from all the commotion. She began to explain, "Change of plans. We're going to try to get to that island in the Fire Nation today so we need to leave right now. I'm going to miss you two," giving them each a hug.

They had already agreed the night before that they wouldn't be traveling together because they had different destinations and the pair didn't want to slow down the gaang by adding extra weight to Appa.

"Me too," they both muttered.

"If you run into anyone else from our tribe, tell them I'm alright and what I'm doing," Kai said.

"We will," Jiang reassured.

"We actually decided that we're going to leave this village soon and try to find Shen and others farther north before we return back to the village. I think it would be better if we were more organized. We can try to set up some sort of communication with you, but I don't where you'll be so I don't know," Chao told Kai.

"It's fine, I'll be on the lookout for any word you set up," said Kai before getting up and with one last goodbye rushing out of the hall and jumping onto Appa.

Aang was talking to the village leader, who was giving him some sort of parcel of supplies. "Thank you for your-" Aang started.

But the leader cut him off pointing to the village gate saying, "Go!"

They took off with Kai looking back waving to Chao and Jiang before they got up into the clouds.

* * *

It was mid morning and they were still soaring over the ocean for as they had been for quite some time. After taking several turns of leading Appa, Aang was now steering, while Sokka, Kai, and Katara were looking over the edge for any sign of Fire Nation ships that they were sure they would encounter. " Come on boy, we've got a long way to go. Faster!"

That was when they saw a black speck in the water coming faster and closer to them. "Aang! We've got trouble," Katara announced.

"Yeah, and it's gaining fast!" Sokka said panicked.

"Who do you think that is?" Kai asked.

"It looks like the ship of Prince Pouty," Sokka remarked.

"Who?" Kai questioned still confused.

"Prince Zuko, Sokka just likes to give out nicknames," Katara clarified.

"I thought maybe I could relieve some of the tension here," said Sokka.

"Well there's no time for it now," said Kai, pointing to the in coming fireball.

"FIREBALL" Katara yelled up to Aang.

"I'm on it," Aang said, swerving Appa out of the range of the fireball. The fragrance of it still lingered in the air though, so Kai plugged her nose, and said, "That's too close for my comfort."

"We have to get out of his range, before he shoots another hot stinker at us," said Katara.

"Can't you make Appa go any faster?" Sokka pleaded.

"Yeah, but there's one problem," he said, pointing ahead of them.

There was a whole line of large Fire Nation ships that stood in front of them. It was a blockade. "If we fly north, we can go around the Fire Nation ships and avoid the blockade. It's the only way,"said Aang

"We don't have time for that," Kai said, desperate.

"This is exactly why I didn't want you to come. It's too dangerous!" Aang reasoned with them.

"And that's exactly why we're here," Katara said, determined.

"Let's run this blockade," Sokka added.

"Kai, I'm going to need you up here for some extra air power or taking over for driving Appa."

Kai crawled as carefully as she could on to Appa's head, settling herself next to Aang. Once he saw that Kai was steadily there, he commanded, "Appa, yip yip!"

They pulled forward even faster with a groan from Appa. Then without any warning, a whole group of fireballs came towards them. They all started screaming in fear and Aang began making Appa dodge the incoming fire. Kai tried her best using air blasts to shield off anything that came too close to them. At the end of this attack, Appa had flown through a exploded fireball leaving embers on his fur. "Appa, are you ok?" Aang asked concerned over the wind.

He groans in reply and they climb higher into the sky to try to avoid the next attack of fireballs. They had just passed through the lowest layers of clouds when the next wave hit. One of the first ones came dangerously close to them, and they all reflexively screamed. Kai hung to one of Appa's horns as Aang made a quick turn to avoid it hitting them. She closed her eyes as another fireball exploded right in front of them. This had spooked Appa and he jerked back and forth. When Kai looked back into the saddle, she saw that Sokka had fallen out of it. Katara was trying to grab him, but he was already too far away. He began to fall through the clouds behind them. Kai screamed, "Sokka!" while Aang had already turned Appa around to try to catch the free falling Sokka. They miraculously managed to get very close to the ocean under Sokka to catch him. He grabbed his sister's outstretched hand and she reeled him back into the saddle. They skimmed the water and a fish hit Kai in the face. Spitting out the salt water that had come with the fish, she looked ahead to see that they were heading straight for the blockade. A third wave of fireballs were now coming at them, but now they were only sprouting up streams of water near them as they were so close to the ocean's surface. One last fireball was heading towards them, and Aang quickly yelled, "Kai, take control!" thrusting the reigns into her hands as he jumped off Appa. He shot a jet of air out his foot to make the fireball stop and explode in mid air. He fell back into Kai, who wrapped her arms around him to make sure he didn't fall off.

They sailed through the line of ships quickly, and after they crossed over Aang yelled out in joy, "We made it!"

Sokka said behind the two, in slight terror, "We got into the Fire Nation. Great."

He had taken the words right out of Kai's mouth. It was great that they had gotten past the blockade, but now they were in dangerous enemy territory. They now had a much higher risk of getting caught and so forth. Kai began to climb back to Appa's saddle when Aang started, "I think we can still make it if we go faster enough. That blockade should've been our biggest problem. By the way, what happened when Sokka and I were away in the Spirit World? Did you find out anything about your tribe, Kai?"

"I actually did," replied Kai happily. "I found out that my tribe was most likely captured, but they are probably alive. When the Fire Nation attacked, the waterbenders were put on a separate boat than the non-benders. So Chao and Jiang didn't know what happened to everybody else but, all the waterbenders were able to escape. That means that most of my friends are safe and alive."

"That's great, Kai!" Aang said. "I bet that if your friends were able to escape, that your parents and everybody else were able too."

"That's what I'm thinking, I mean there are about 150 non benders, so if 16 waterbenders were able to escape then I bet all the rest could escape too," Kai predicted hopefully.

"Were you able to plan what you and your friends were going to do next?" Sokka asked.

"A little bit, we weren't able to spend too much time together because we were either looking for you two or I was unconscious," Kai explained nonchalantly.

"Hold on, what do you mean by unconscious?" Sokka screeched.

"Exactly that," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "I forgot to tell you guys, right after you two left the village, I got really dizzy all of a sudden. I sort of passed out."

"Don't act like it was no big thing, your friends and I were really worried about you. No matter what we did you wouldn't wake up for like 5 hours," Katara added.

"I don't know what happened, I mean one minute I was just fine, the next I was passed out. That's only happened once, about a month and half ago. Maybe I'm getting sick," Kai suggested, slightly panicking.

"I don't know, Kai. I've never heard of something like that. I've known a few people to have dizzy spells, but they can usually be brought out of them fairly quickly. You wouldn't wake up," said the young waterbender.

"Whatever it is, I'm sure we can figure it out, once we're out of enemy territory. We have to focus here. The Fire Nation could attack at any moment. We need to keep our guard up," Sokka said, gesturing to the surroundings.

"Sokka, there's nothing below us, but water. What do you think's going to happen? Some fish is going to jump all the way up into the clouds and attack us?" Katara asked her brother.

"With our luck, it might just happen!"

"Fine, we'll do what you say Sokka and look out for any enemy fish," Aang said from up front.

* * *

They had now been flying for the whole day and at this point Kai and the others were exhausted. Traveling for the last day in enemy land combined with them not getting much sleep the day before left them wanting to just go back to the Earth Kingdom and rest. Kai, Sokka, and Katara were all laying down in the saddle while Aang was draped over Appa's head. Then Aang cried out, "There it is!" Aang yelled out, pointing to the crescent island in front of them. "That's the island where Roku's dragon took me."

The island was apparently a volcano, flowing with bright red lava with a multi story tower on top of it with a bridge leading to it. That must be Roku's temple, Kai thought. They flew down to a clearing a big distance away from the temple. The view of it was covered by a low wall of rocks. The four got off Appa, who then proceeded to roll over on his side panting with his eyes half closed. "You did it buddy. Nice flying," Aang praised his companion.

Katara rubbed his stomach saying, "Awww, you must be tired."

"No, I'm good. Refreshed and ready to fight some firebenders," Sokka said stretching out and running in place.

"I was talking to Appa," said Katara dryly.

"Well...I was talking to Kai," he said, pointing to his right.

"I'm over here, dummy," Kai replied coming from his left.

"Oh," Sokka said embarrassed. "What are you doing over there?"

"I was checking out the place. I don't see any guards close to us, but we're going to have to be careful," Kai replied calmly.

"The Fire Nation must have abandoned the temple when Avatar Roku died," Katara speculated.

They creeped closer to the temple, almost crawling on the bridge to make sure they weren't seen just in case. The gaang reached the last wall that separated them from the rest of the temple. "It's almost sundown. We better hurry," Aang announced.

Together they leapt over the wall, and headed for the only door that they saw open, the front. Quietly, they went into the temple, trying to make the least amount of noise possible. "Move, move, move," Kai whispered, trying to make the group go faster.

But Sokka, who was the last one in their line stopped and said, "Wait. I think I heard something."

"Let's not wait to find out then," Kai commanded.

But the other three had already turned around, so Kai had no choice but to follow them. There were five older men all dressed in red facing them. They were all wearing matching robes and hats. She saw that Aang was about to innocently ask them who they were when the oldest of them announced them, "We are the Fire Sages. Guardians of the temple of the Avatar and his Apprentice."

"Great I'm the Avatar," Aang said happily. "And she's my Apprentice," pointing to Kai.

"We know," he responded harshly before sending three fireballs at them. Aang used defensive air blasts while Kai used an air shield to protect the four from the incoming fire.

"I'll hold them off. Run!" Aang cried to the others.

While Katara and Sokka ran off, Kai stayed by Aang's side and also used her airbending to knock the Sages away from them. Then, Kai grabbed one of Aang's sleeves and ran after the other two. They continued down a few sets of hallways before running into Katara and Sokka again. "Follow me!" he yelled.

"Do you know where you are going?" asked Sokka.

"Nope," Aang replied, turning down a hallway.

But as Kai saw too, a Fire Sage was down that hallway and she quickly scrambled going back the way she came, yelling to the other two, "Wrong way!"

The group took another turn, trying to lose this Fire Sage, who had cried for them to come back. But Kai as sure as hell wasn't going to stop because the Fire Sage asked her to. But then, the path Aang had chosen turned out to be a dead end. Aang tried to open the barred window to no avail.

The Fire Sage, who had followed them, said, "I don't want to fight you! I'm a friend."

"Firebenders aren't are friends," Kai said, stepping in front of the group.

Aang tried to get in front of them and go into a defensive pose, but Kai pushed him behind her. The Fire Sage surprised them by bowing down in front of the two and saying, "I know why you're here, Avatar."

"You do?" asked Aang, poking his head out behind Kai trying to get to the front. But again, Kai pushed him behind her.

"You wish to speak to Avatar Roku. I can take you to him," the Sage confessed to them.

"How?" Kai asked.

He slid back a nearby lamped and using his firebending, he coughed making the panel light up. The wall slid away and revealed a staircase leading down into some cave. Distant footsteps could be heard coming down the hallway towards them. The heard a Sage say, "This way."

The man pointed down the secret hallway saying, "Time is running out. Quickly!"

The four looked at each other and Sokka and Katara nodded that they thought it would be safe to trust this firebender. They all walked into this secret passage and once Sokka, the last one, entered the wall slid quietly back into place. "So, who are you?" Katara curiously asked as they walked down the staircase.

"My name is Shyu. My family has been serving the Avatar for a few generations," he explained. "Avatar Roku once called this temple his home. He formed those secret passages out of magma."

"Did you know Avatar Roku?" Aang questioned Shyu.

Shyu answered no, but he did explain about the spiritual connection that the Fire Sages have with the temple. Aang asked how they knew he was coming and Shyu explained about how Avatar Roku's eyes glowed, when apparently Aang when into the Avatar state at the Air Temple. He then explained why the Fire Sages attacked Aang. Aang felt very guilty about being 100 years late, so Sokka like usual tried to joke about it, which didn't work. Then, Shyu began explaining about what they would need to do when they got to the center of the temple. "We'll follow these stairs to the sanctuary. Once you're inside, wait for the light to hit Avatar Roku's statue. Only then will you be able to speak to him." He paused for a minute. "May I ask if you are a fully realized Avatar?"

"I'm not," Aang replied sadly. "I only know air, but I'm planning to learn the others real soon."

"I was just wondering for your Apprentice's sake," said Shyu.

"What do you mean?" asked Kai.

"It is very unusual for an Avatar who is not fully realized to try to go into the Avatar state to contact the Spirit World. It is very draining for that person, so that Avatar is forced to temporarily use his Apprentice's spirit to enter the Spirit World," the Fire Sage explained.

Aang and Kai looked at each other horrified. "Maybe I shouldn't try this. I mean I don't want to do anything that could harm Kai."

"Oh, I didn't mean it like that. Going into the Avatar state while not fully realized won't hurt your friend. I just meant that when you go into the Avatar state and use her spirit, she will go unconscious for the duration of the time, or if it is for a prolonged time, when she wakes up she will not be able to use her airbending," Shyu said.

"That's why I passed out yesterday," Kai realized. "You were in the Spirit World, so you used my spirit. I'm not sick or dying or something."

"That's correct," Shyu responded. "You and the Avatar's spirits are intertwined, so even when he is fully realized, you will know when he is in extreme distress and uses the Avatar State."

They had reached the top of the stairs that they had been climbing, and Shyu removed the panel above them and poked his head out, then motioned for the four of them to follow. They walked up to a door, and Shyu gasped out, "No!"

"Shyu, what's wrong?" Aang asked, approaching the door.

"The sanctuary doors, they're closed," Shyu explained.

Aang and Kai were pulling on the door while Katara asked, "Can't you just open them with firebending? Like you did with the other door?"

"No," Shyu said, shaking his head. "Only a fully realized Avatar is powerful enough to open this door alone. Otherwise, the Sages must open the door together, with five simultaneous fire blasts."

Aang sighed, but Sokka shot up with an idea and said, "Five fire blasts, huh? I think I can help you out."

He ran up to nearby lanterns collecting five skin bags and oil, tying with a piece of robe. "This is a little trick I picked up from my father," he explained to the group. "I seal the oil in an animal skin casing, Shyu lights the oil soaked twine and," finishing off the last one, and lifting the bag proudly. "Tada! Fake firebending."

"You've really outdone yourself this time, Sokka," Kai commented.

"This might actually work," Shyu said amazed.

They each took a bag and put in the mouth of each dragon. Shyu got into a position to light all five bags. "The sages will hear the explosion, so as soon as they go off, you rush in," Shyu said, talking to Aang.

Kai, Katara, and Sokka hid behind one column while Aang hid behind a separate one . "It's almost sundown, are you ready?" Katara asked him.

"Definitely," Aang replied confidently.

"Catch me when I go under?" Kai asked, nervously Sokka.

"Always, I won't let anything happen to you," he smiled back at her.

Shyu lit the twines and Kai covered her ears to block out the sound of the explosion. It went off with a boom and Aang sprinted towards the doors. The smoke cleared and Aang was still there trying to open the door. "They're still locked," he yelled to the others.

"It didn't work," Shyu said sadly.

Aang slid to his knees and Katara approached him tentatively. But Aang, suddenly jumped up. Sending air blasts angrily at the door shouting, "Why, won't it, open?!"

Catching Aang's arm Katara yelled, "Aang! Stop! There's nothing we can do..."

"I'm sorry I put you all through this for nothing," Aang said, sadly speaking to the group.

"It's not your fault Aang, you didn't know about this. Maybe we can figure out another way to get in there. Like through the vents or something?" Kai suggested.

Sokka however was examining the door again running his fingers over the ash. "I don't get it. That firebending looked as strong as any firebending I've seen."

Katara jumped up suddenly and said, "Sokka; you're a genius!"

"Wait. How is Sokka a genius? His plan didn't even work," Kai questionned.

"Come on Kai, let her dream," Sokka replied smugly.

"You're right. Sokka's plan didn't work," Katara agreed. "But it looked like it did."

"Did the definition of genius change over the last hundred years?" Aang asked.

But, Katara began explaining her plan to Aang and the others. As long as it looked like Aang was inside, the Sages would want to get him out. And in order to do that, they would have to open the doors. Aang could easily get inside then, while everybody else held the Sages off.

Shyu ran off to find the sages so the plan could go into the action. As soon as the sages realized that they had been tricked, it was Kai, Katara, and Sokka's responsibilities to run out and restrain them.

They hide slightly out of the way with the same groups as before on each came back with the sages saying, "Come quickly! The Avatar has entered the sanctuary!"

"How did he get in?" the Head Sage asked.

"I don't know," Shyu lied. "But look at the scorch marks, and down there," pointing to the shadow moving at the base of the door.

"He's inside," the Head Sage yelled. '"Open the doors, immediately. Before he contacts, Avatar Roku!"

All five fire Sages did this and the huge doors opened and revealed Momo covered in soot sitting calmly inside. "It's the Avatar's lemur. He must have crawled through the pipes. We've been tricked," cried the Head Sage.

Katara, Kai, and Sokka all ran out from the pillar that they had been hiding behind. Kai rushed forward restraining the oldest Sage with ease. Once that task was completed, she looked to the left where Aang was going to come out. Shyu yelled, "Now Aang!'

When nothing moved, Katara yelled, "Aang! Now's your chance."

Still everything was still, until a scarred Fire Nation teenager came out holding Aang with his arms behind his back. Kai guessed this must be Prince Zuko from the stories she had heard from the gang. "The Avatar's coming with me. Close the doors quickly," he said.

She knew that Aang couldn't miss this precious opportunity because of a spoiled prince. Kai let go of the Sage she was holding onto and ran towards the pair. She quickly threw an air blast that pushed Zuko from behind Aang, making Zuko tumble onto the floor. Aang looked shocked for a minute but Kai snapped him out of it by yelling, "Go!" and pointing towards the now closing doors.

He ran towards them using the Sages' heads to propel him through the doors which closed with a bright light. He made it, she heard Katara say. At this point, Kai took in the scene before her. The tides had now completely changed, Sokka and Katara were now chained to a pole and Shyu was being restrained by other sages. She took a step forward to try to help her friends when a strong arm wrapped around her waist pinning her arms to her sides. When she took a deep breathe to blow away whoever was holding onto her, another hand covered her mouth. "Looks like I've found the Avatar's Apprentice," Prince Zuko hissed in her ear.

Kai began to struggle, but the longer she did the more lightheaded she felt. Not because of a lack of oxygen, but because Aang was most likely passing into the Spirit World, so as Shyu said she would be unconscious. Still she tried to get out of his grasp before she blacked out and do something. But, her eyelids drooped before Kai could do anything.

Zuko noticed Kai had stopped struggling because of the lack or pressure he felt pushing against his arm, so he looked down at the girl. She was hanging limply, he quickly felt for her pulse to see if he had accidentally hurt her. He felt relief when he found a steady beat. Then, he shoved those concerned thoughts out of his head and focused on his mission, his honor. Using some of the rope that Zuko was going to restrain the Avatar with to tie the girl's hands behind her back, he set her up against the pillar opposite the Water Tribe siblings. He turned his attention the Fire Sage traitor. "Why did you help the Avatar?" Zuko questioned.

Shyu brought up his head to meet the Prince's gaze. "Because it was once our duty. It's still our duty."

Clapping brought the attention to the staircase. Commander Zhao and various other soldiers stood on top of it. "What a moving and heartfelt performance. I'm certain the Fire Lord will understand, when you explain why you betrayed him."

A soldier came around Zuko's back and restrained his arms. Zuko growled in response. "And Prince Zuko, it was a valiant effort, but your little smoke screen didn't work. Two traitors in one day, the Fire Lord will be pleased."

"It's too late Zhao," Zuko bit out. "The Avatar's inside and the doors are sealed shut."

"No matter," he said with a smirk. "Sooner or later, he'll have to come out."

Commander Zhao took the silence to inspect the scene that had unfolded in front of him. It was his favorite part of his job, taunting the fallen. He first casually walked over to Katara and Sokka. "These must be the two Water Tribe peasants rumored to be traveling with the Avatar. What a sad excuse for a nation," Sokka growled and Katara's eyes raged with fury. "Once the Avatar is captured, you'll be let go, but only because you'll be no threat to us. Enjoy that freedom while it lasts because after the Earth Kingdom is conquered, your pathetic village and fleet will be next."

Zhao walked away from them satisfied as he always was when he got a reaction out of his prisoners. Turning back to Prince Zuko, one that did not deserve that title in his opinion, he noticed the teenage girl slumped against the pole. He arms were pulled behind her. She was wearing a light blue tunic which he recognized as Southeastern Water Tribe. Curiosity intrigued, he walked closer and knelt to study her. He saw out of the corner of his eye the Prince shift nervously as if he was trying to hide something. Why was this girl here? Then all the pieces came together. "Well this is indeed my lucky day," he said darkly. "I've shot two birds with one stone. This girl is the Avatar's Apprentice, isn't that right Prince Zuko?"

Zuko made no response except for shifting in his chains. But the head sage spoke up, "Yes she is, the Avatar told us that she was."

"Such a shame, she's such an exotic one," Zhao said, fingering her face studying it closely.

"Don't touch her," a male voice shouted out. The Commander turned around to find the source. He saw the Water Tribe boy thrashing around desperate to be free. "Get away from her, you creep," he said.

"Well, seeing the position you're in, you can't really do anything about it," taunted Zhao. This angered Sokka even more and even Katara was getting riled up. "I could do anything with her if I wanted. I could free her, leave her here to starve, or even just kill her on the spot," Zhao said pulling Kai up by her hair.

Katara yelled, "Leave her alone!"

While Sokka was now beyond words desperately wanting to hold his boomerang or club and do something. It hurt him that Kai was hanging limply like a rag doll in this ruthless man's grasp. She could even do anything about it, so it would be his fault if she got hurt or worse. Sokka felt the same urge to protect as he did with Katara and Aang which was unbelievable because he only met this girl about a month ago. But still, the feeling was still there.

"But that would be too easy," Zhao said, interrupting Sokka's musings. "I'll leave it to the Fire Lord to do that. But I'm sure that the Fire Lord wouldn't mind if I marked her first, as I was the one who captured her."

Zhao started up a small ball of fire in his hand after chaining her to the pole. "No, you can't do this," Katara screamed. Sokka still struggled to get free staring at the flame slowly approaching Kai's left elbow. Zuko looked very uncomfortable at the scene next to him.

Flames started to burn away the cloth surrounding her elbow, when Zhao suddenly stopped. "She's already been marked," he said with certain disbelief. The blistered skin shone clearly back at Zhao and his shoulders almost slumped in defeat. "This certainly changes things for the time being. But no matter, when we return to the Fire Nation, I'll find who did this so then you can be all mine."

Zuko's eyebrows raised, disgusted with the Commander's behavior. While Sokka and Katara just looked at this in shock and slight confusion.

Zhao removed his hand from Kai's face who he had been holding during the exchange. It dropped down so her chin touched her chest and Zhao walked away now ready to command his troops. He ordered, "When the Avatar comes out, release all your firepower."

"How's Aang gonna make it out of this?" Katara whispered to her brother.

"How are we going to make it out of this?" Sokka responded back.

Sokka turned his gaze first to the multiple firebenders all directed towards where Aang would come out, then to Kai across the way. She was still oblivious of the threats coming from Zhao, still obviously passed out. He willed Aang to come out of the Spirit World soon, so they could somehow make their escape and Kai would no longer be helpless. He needed to keep his promise to her, and protect when she was under.

The enormous doors began glowing bright white again, signaling that Aang would come be coming out. Katara struggled against the chains and yelled, "No! Aang!"

"Fire!" Zhao ordered his men, and they began blasting fire at the entrance of the sanctuary. Sokka turned his head not wanting to see his friend being burnt to a crisp. But instead of Aang, Avatar Roku stood in his place and was bending the fire into a ball protectively. He then sent the fire he had been holding towards Zhao and the other soldiers, while burning the chains that held the prisoners of the two pillars effectively. The fire hit the back wall and blew it out. Sokka and Katara shook off the remaining parts of and the Water Tribe boy ran over to Kai, who and effectively killed off any ideas of Zuko taking Kai with him, so he ran off empty handed. He quickly untied her wrists and scooped her up bridal style as she was still unconscious. The Sages ran past them and Shyu told the group, "Avatar Roku is going to destroy the temple. We have to get out of here."

"Not without Aang," Katara said determined.

Shyu ran off too, while the other three moved behind a pillar to protect themselves with Sokka using his body to shield the two girls. Avatar Roku used his bending to create a giant crack in the floor and then used the magma underneath it to blast out the top of the temple. Then a large smoke cloud wrapped itself around Roku and revealed a very weak Aang in his place. Kai also began to stir.

Katara ran over to help Aang up while, Sokka was helping Kai up. "You kept your promise," she said wearily smiling.

"Of course I did," Aang and Katara were now approaching them. "We got your two backs."

"Thanks," Aang replied. "Where's Shyu?"

"I don't know, I think he ran off," Sokka said.

They approached the staircase that led down to the exit of the temple, but it was covered high in lava. "Oh no," Kai muttered.

They dodged a falling statue and were forced to run closer to the gap in the wall, as they slowly were taken down with the temple. Then, the group saw Momo and Appa come flying closer to them they slid down the roof onto Appa's back. Just in time too, because the temple exploded shortly after. Momo, wearing a Fire Sage's hat, popped up next to Kai on the saddle and she petted his head affectionately. "Thanks for going with me you guys, I actually learned something really important that Roku was trying to tell me," said Aang.

"What is it?" Kai asked.

"Well, it all starts with the beginning of the war," Aang explained. "To start the war the Fire Nation used this comet called Sozin's comet to start their attack on the other nations, particularly the Air Nomads. This comet basically enhanced their firebending to a big extent."

"Well, that's horrible, but what does it have to do with now?" Katara asked.

"The thing is this comet comes around every hundred years and since it's been a hundred years since the war has started, it's coming this year, the end of this summer."

"So you mean this giant flaming rock that makes firebenders even more dangerous is coming this summer. What does Roku want you to do about it? Fly up there and somehow stop it?" Sokka said.

"No, I can't stop it, that is the problem. So he said that I need to learn all three other elements before the end of the summer and defeat the Fire Lord or it will be too late," he said, starting to breathe quicker and twiddle his thumbs after he saw the shocked looks on the others' faces.

Kai's face softened at the point as she saw the anxiety written of Aang's face."So you have to learn the elements a little bit quicker than we originally thought. We're already on our way to the North Pole and if we don't take too many more side trips we can probably make it there this winter. We're here to help you Aang. We can help you learn the elements and even help you fight the Fire Lord too."

"Like we said back at the temple," Sokka added. "We got your back."

"But what if I fail?" Aang asked nervously.

"If you say it like that," Katara said. "You will fail. If you dwell on the fact that you might fail then you will. But if you allow yourself to hope then you have something to fight for and dream about a better future."

"You're right Katara, I do have something to fight for, you guys," Aang said smiling.

"That's right, and you are our reason too," responded Katara. "But right now you don't need to fight, you need to rest. I can see that being in the Avatar State twice in two days tired you out. Climb back here and rest, I can drive Appa."

He followed Katara's orders and handed the reigns over to her. He lay down in the back and tentatively closed his eyes. "You too Kai," said Katara. "You are going to fall asleep standing if you don't get some rest."

She lay down in a way that mirrored Aang, but then she noticed her burnt sleeve of her shirt and said, "Katara, when we land do you think that you can mend this? I don't know what happened to it."

"I do," said Sokka sadly. "It was Zhao."

"Who?" Kai asked.

"He was the Admiral who was leading the group that was attacking Aang," he said.

"Wait, there was someone else other than Zuko at the temple?" Aang asked, shooting straight up, as he had yet to fallen asleep.

"Why didn't I see him?" Kai questioned.

"Oh right, you two were either unconscious or possessed by a dead Avatar. Well he is this guy who is serious enemies with Zuko with is strange because they are from the same nation. Anyways, he's the typical ruthless firebender, he was the one that you had to defend yourself from," Sokka explained.

"So if he's after Aang, what does he have to do with me?"

"Well, I think he was also interested in you because you're the Avatar's Apprentice. He tried burning you at one point but he stopped when he already saw you were burned. Something about being marked, whatever that means. He was just being super creepy and said something about claiming you," said Sokka.

"Ugggh," she said, shuddering. "Well I guess it's a good thing he saw my scar then. But I really want to know what 'marked' is."

"I don't know," Sokka said shrugging his shoulders. "All I know is that he left you alone after he saw your scar."

"There's nothing you can do about it now," said Katara, who was listening in on the conversation. "Aang, Kai get some sleep."

Kai lay back down next to Sokka sighing but closing her eyes none the less. "Goodnight Sokka, thanks for everything," she muttered, before falling asleep.

"Anytime, goodnight, Kai," he said, looking at Kai peacefully sleeping.

* * *

**Wow, this chapter really took itself out of my hands and came out a lot longer than I had planned. Anyway thanks, like always, for reading. It would mean a lot to me if you took a minute to review, and hear what you think. I accept anonymous reviews too, so even if you don't have an account on , you can review anywhere. See you next time!**


	7. Ch 7: The Waterbending Scroll

**First off to all the anonymous reviewers and xX Angel of Mine Xx, who reviewed last chapter, and anyone else who reviewed previous chapters, you guys are so kind. I'm really grateful for the time you took to review. Now onto the story!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender**

* * *

**"**The Waterbending Scroll"

A day after they had escaped the Fire Temple, Aang paced the saddle back and forth anxiously. "Would you sit down?" asked Sokka, from up front on Appa's head. "If we hit a bump you'll go flying off. What's bugging you anyway?"

"It's what Avatar Roku said. I'm supposed to master all four elements before the comet comes," Aang said, still not sitting down.

"I thought we already went over this, Aang, we're already going to the North Pole as fast as we can. Then. we'll worry about finding you earth and fire bending teachers," Kai tried to comfort him.

"And think of this Aang," Sokka started sarcastically, "You pretty much mastered airbending and that only took you a hundred and twelve years. I'm sure you can master all three elements by next summer."

"Not helping," Kai hissed at Sokka, as Aang's face turned even more frightened.

"See, that's the problem I haven't even started waterbending yet and we're still weeks away from the North Pole. What am I going to do?" asked Aang.

At this point, Katara had grown annoyed of Aang's constant pacing and pulled on his arm for him to kneel down next to her. "Calm down, it's going to be okay. If you want, I can try to teach you some of the stuff I know."

"You'd do that?" he asked, smiling at her.

"Of course she would," Kai added. "I can teach you what I know and with us combined, I bet you would at least have some of the basics before we reach the North Pole."

"That would be great!" he answered, cheered up.

"We just need to find a good water source, first, to teach you," said Katara, looking at the ground below.

"Maybe we can find a puddle for you to splash in," said Sokka, grinning.

"For the last time it's not splashing! It's waterbending!" Kai corrected Sokka.

"Eh, what's the difference?" he said joking.

"The difference, is once we land in our 'puddle' you're going to get 'splashed' a lot," said Kai deviously.

"I take it back, I take it back," Sokka said, panicking, knowing from growing up with a waterbender as a sister that when you get a waterbender mad, you aren't dry for many days.

Kai only laughed in response though and said, "Whatever, Sokka."

* * *

The 'puddle' they landed in turned out to be a large waterfall and a river. It was surrounded by tall trees that blocked them from any wandering travelers or Fire Nation soldiers. "Nice puddle," commented Sokka, frowning when he saw the three others ecstatic faces, knowing being here in basically a giant playground for waterbenders would being nothing but trouble. Kai, to his left, squealed in delight and rushed towards the river in clothes and all. "It's so warm," she declared, swimming around in it.

Appa landed in the river next Kai, which got Kai even more soaked. Aang, seeing the two happily in the water, yelled, stripping down, "Yeah! Don't start without me, you guys!"

Katara interrupted saying, "Remember why we're here."

Aang stopped, mid run and said, "Oh right, time to practice waterbending."

Kai blushed sheepishly, and climbed out of the water too. Dripping all over, she walked over to the group. "Great. So what am I supposed to do?" Sokka asked sarcastically.

"You could clean the gunk out of Appa's toes," Aang suggested innocently.

Sokka frowned at the group, so Kai suggested, "Or I could help you plan our path to the North Pole, so we could get there the fastest, since Katara can help Aang first."

"Your choice," Aang said, shrugging his shoulders.

"I'll go with the planning. My talents would be wasted just picking Appa's toes," Sokka said cocky.

Katara giggled, "Your talents, like getting constantly beaten by Fire Nation soldiers."

"Hey, if it weren't for me, we would never have gotten anywhere close to where we are now," Sokka defended. "I keep us on track and out of trouble."

"You call, getting caught by a spirit and being trapped in the Spirit World for 24 hours staying out of trouble?" Kai asked, laughing.

Sokka only glared at Kai in response and said, "You know, I really hate you right now."

"Oh, Sokka, you wound me," Kai said dramatically, falling to the ground pretending that she had been stabbed, but even her pathetic dying noises could not crack a smile out of Sokka. "Come on Sokka, you set yourself up for that."

"Fine," he said huffing.

"Let's go Aang, we better get you started working on your waterbending," Katara said, walking with Aang away from the group a little bit farther down the river. She began lecturing him, so Kai turned back to Sokka, who had already gotten their map out and asked, "So what's our plan to get to the North Pole?"

"So, we are around here, near this port you see," Sokka said, pointing to the middle of the coast of the Earth Kingdom. "To reach the Northern Water Tribe, we're going to have to go first a little bit east and then north, so we can avoid most towns controlled by the Fire Nation. We can first fly over the village of Gaipan, and then we're going to have to cross the Great Divide. This harbor town back on the coast might be a good place to restock supplies, and we should probably stop there. I think it might be one of the few on the coast that isn't controlled by the Fire Nation," pointing to a town on the inlet of the Earth Kingdom. "From this point on, it would be a good idea to travel up the coast. Then ta da, we reach the Northern Water Tribe."

"Sounds like a good idea, but how are we going to afford the supplies we need? We're almost out of the money that King Bumi gave us," Kai asked curiously.

"I don't know, maybe one of us could get a job or something on the way. We can survive for a little bit on food from the forests we camp in, but we'll need to stock up on food when we leave the Earth Kingdom to get to the Northern Water Tribe, it's at least a three day journey, maybe more if we get lost," said Sokka.

"Well I had an idea-" Kai began to say before a huge wave came crashing down on both Sokka and Kai. Her reflexes proved to be useful though as right before it hit her, she had airbent a dome shaped air shield around her, preventing water to come in. Sokka was not so lucky though and he got drenched in the water. "Nice bending, Kai," said Aang. "Sorry Sokka, but looks like I got the hang of that move. What else do you got?"

"I think that's enough practicing for today," Katara said, slightly annoyed.

"Yay, I'll say! You just 'practiced' our supplies down the river," Sokka ranted.

"Oh, no," muttered Kai and she started to swim down the river and was able to retrieve her guitar in its case, that had floated to the bank. She opened the case quickly and to check that the guitar wasn't too waterlogged, by strumming the strings. "It's okay you guys, my guitar is alright," she yelled to the others.

"What a relief," said Sokka sarcastically, and now it was Kai's turn to glare at him.

"Uh, sorry," Aang said hesitantly. "I'm sure we can find somewhere to replace all this stuff."

"My life was hard enough when you were just an airbender," Sokka complained sinking back under the water.

* * *

They decided to try and go into that port that Sokka had mentioned before to try to replace some of the supplies that they had lost. Thankfully, it wasn't everything that they owned that got swept down the river. Mainly their basic camping supplies like food and spark rocks and so forth. Kai protectively held her knapsack close to her as they walked through the streets of the port. It definitely had a seedy feeling. "We have exactly three copper pieces left from the money that King Bumi gave us. Let's spend it wisely," Sokka told the group.

"Uh, make that two copper pieces, Sokka. I couldn't say no to this whistle," Aang said, showing the others his whistle that was shaped vaguely a bison. He blew into the whistle, but only a faint sound came out of it.

"It doesn't even work," Sokka complained. Momo landed on Aang's head and chirped loudly. "See? Even Momo thinks it's a piece of junk."

"No offense, Aang, but I'll hold the money from now on," Katara said kindly, holding out her hand for the remain two coins.

They continued walking down the pier when a man was yelling next to a boat advertising his shop. He ran up to the group and said, "Oh! You there, I can see from your clothing that you're world-traveling types. Perhaps I can interest you in some exotic curios?"

Aang giving the man the benefit of the doubt innocently asked, "Sure, what are curios?"

The man gave Aang a puzzled look but then replied, "I'm not entirely sure. But we got em'," leading Aang onto the ship.

Sokka, Kai, and Katara rushed to catch up with him. They entered the poorly lit ship that contained a whole variety of things. There was a creepy statue of a monkey, fancy vases, and boxes of assorted junk. She was walking next to Aang when a voice came from the dark doorway saying, "I've never seen such a fine specimen of lemur. That beast would fetch me a hefty sum if you're interested in bartering," while the exotic bird squawked at the two.

Aang cuddled Momo protectively and said, "Momo's not for sale."

Then, Katara called the two over to what she was looking at. "Look at this you guys. It's a waterbending scroll! Check out these crazy moves."

Kai ran her hand over the designs and said, "They're laid out just perfectly, step by step. I think even I could do these."

"Where'd you get the waterbending scroll?" Aang asked the man, excited.

The man slammed his hand down on the scroll, picked it up, and rolled it back in place before telling them, "Let's say I got it up North, at a most reasonable price, free."

Sokka, who had been listening on this exchange the whole time, turned around towards them and realized, "Wait a minute...Sea loving traders, with suspiciously acquired merchandise, and pet reptile birds? You guys are pirates!"

The first man put his arm around Sokka's shoulder and said, "We prefer to think of ourselves, as high risk traders."

Katara then tried to coily ask, "So, how much for the, uh, traded scroll?"

The captain harshly answered, "I've already got a buyer, a nobleman in the Earth Kingdom. Unless, of course, you kids have two hundred gold pieces on you right now."

Aang motioned Kai and Katara over for a mini group huddle. "I know how to deal with these guys, Kai, Katara. Pirates love to haggle," Aang held out his hand for the money. "Watch and learn," Aang walked over to the counter.

"Just don't do anything stupid," she whispered at his retreating back.

"Let's say to the price of one copper piece," Aang smiled, and presented the coin in a flashy manner.

The pirate laughed heartily at Aang's antics, but then turned serious saying, "The price is two hundred gold pieces. I don't haggle on items this rare."

Smirking, Aang tried yet again bargaining with two copper pieces. But the pirate only became more frustrated with him. So Kai, seeing the disappointed look on Aang's face, walked up beside him and said, "Look, what's an Earth Kingdom noble even going to use it-"

But she was cut off when Katara tapped her shoulder and whispered. "Kai, can we get out of here? I feel like we are getting weird looks..."

Kai sighed, but followed Katara out of the ship. Once they were on the street Aang asked, "What was that all about, Katara?"

"Yeah, I was just starting to browse through their boomerang collection," Sokka whinned. "And Kai didn't even see the scrolls of music they had."

"Aww, there was a music section, can't we please go back?" Kai pleaded.

"No," Katara said firmly. "I'll just feel a lot better once we get out of here," hugging her arms.

The first pirate yelled after them though, "Hey you! Get back here!"

Aang turned around and smugly said, "Well, well. Look who's come to their senses. Told you the haggling would pay off."

But then, a whole pack of pirates jumped out at them, flaunting their weapons and whispering to themselves. "I don't think these pirates are here to trade with us," Katara said, starting to back away from them.

Soon enough, the whole gaang was running away from the pirates. They were close on their tail. The four cut down an alleyway to hopefully lose them, but they were still close behind. Katara managed to waterbend some water from a nearby barrel and freeze it to make the pirates slip. But unfortunately, only one pirate fell on entered another alley and passed by a cabbage merchant's stand. Kai, Katara, and Sokka all ran into it knocking a few cabbages from it, but then Aang used the stand to stop the three pirates following them by blowing it back into them. The merchant of the stand called angrily after them, but Kai could not hear over the wind in her ears as she and the others continued to run away. But, in their path was another group of pirates, so she and the others had to do a complete 180 and run in the opposite direction. They ducked into another alley, but it turned out to be a dead end. They turned around and the lead pirate asked them menacingly, "Now, who gets to taste the steel of my blade first?"

"No thanks," said Aang, blowing dust at them to make a smoke screen of sorts. He then began running towards the pirates and opened his glider. "Grab on tight!"

"Aang!" Katara yelled. "I thought we were running away from the pirates!"

But she, like Sokka, grabbed on to the end of the glider. While, Kai grabbed onto hers and Sokka's legs. Slowly, but surely, Aang was able to pull the three up away from the pirates and back to the forest where they came.

* * *

Aang flew them back to the 'puddle' that they had practiced before. Putting his glider away he said, "I used to kind of look up to pirates, but those guys are terrible."

Flopping down on the ground, Kai groaned and said, "I know, that whole trip was terrible. We didn't even get any of the supplies we needed, only Aang's broken whistle."

"Well, that was partly why I took this," Katara said, holding out the waterbending scroll from the store.

"No way," Aang said in disbelief.

"Now wonder they were trying to hack us up," Sokka exclaimed. "You stole their waterbending scroll!"

"I prefer to think of it as high risk trading," Katara joked.

"Good one, Katara," Aang laughed.

Seeing the disapproval on Sokka's face she reasoned saying, "Sokka, where do you think they got it? They stole it from a waterbender!"

"It doesn't matter," Sokka continued. "You put all of our lives in danger just so you could learn some stupid, fancy splashes."

"What do you want Katara to do, Sokka? Go back to the pirates and give them back the scroll? Do you honestly think they'll just let her go if she brings it back?" Kai asked Sokka who said nothing in response. "Besides these are real waterbending forms. You know how crucial it is for Aang to learn waterbending. We're going to have to break a few laws if we want to win this war."

"Whatever," said Sokka, walking away from the group.

"Well, what's done is done. We have it, we might as well learn from it," Aang said trying to comfort Katara.

The three walked over to the water's edge and Katara said, "I just want to try this one move first and then it's all yours," handing the scroll to Aang. "Here, hold it open for me. The single water whip looks doable."

Kai took a seat on a stump slightly off to the side and watched as Katara attempted the water whip. She knew that it might take herself a little while to master these moves as it did take her longer to master most waterbending moves. So she already knew that the other two would advance quicker than her. Though she was a little bit jealous of the other two for it, she was at least glad that she could progress quickly in airbending. Katara was becoming more frustrated that she couldn't master this move. So Aang, trying to be nice, attempted and completed the move giving Katara some tips on bending. But that was when Katara lost it, "Will you please shut your air hole?! Believe it or not your infinite wisdom gets a little old sometimes! Why don't we just throw the scroll away since you're so naturally gifted?!"

Kai saw that Aang had tears in his eyes because he was not only being yelled at for doing something right. But he was also being yelled at by his crush. This pushed Kai over the edge so she walked up to Katara and yelled, "You have no right to say that to him! All he was trying to do was to try and help you! So he gets waterbending a little bit faster than you, it's not a race! He is the Avatar if you have forgotten!"

Katara sheepishly looked away from a seething Kai and turned to Aang and said. "I am so sorry Aang. I was thinking when I spoke, I don't know what came over me. I didn't mean any of that. But you know it won't happen again," giving the scroll to Aang. "I don't want anything to do with it anymore."

"It's okay, Katara," said Aang softly.

"Really Katara, I didn't mean for my emotions to take so much charge, you don't have to give up from learning from the scroll," said Kai.

"No, I've seen what is has done to me. I don't want to learn from it, or at least not for a while," responded Katara.

Kai looked suspiciously at Katara, not trusting this complete transformation. But then she saw the sincerity in her eyes, true regret for what she had said to Aang. Sokka spoke up asking, "What about Momo? He's the real victim here."

Momo had been hit in the process of Katara learning waterbending, so Momo did deserve as much as an apology as Aang, even though he was only a lemur. "I'm sorry, Momo," Katara said kindly, petting his head.

"And what about me? There was that time you-" Sokka prodded his sister.

"No more apologies!" Katara exclaimed sharply.

* * *

Later that night Kai tossed and turned, but she could not fall back asleep. She had been able to fall asleep for a while, but now after she had awoken in the middle of the night. Huffing again, she turned over and willed her body to sleep. But, she had all this unnecessary energy at the most inconvenient time. Deciding to do the only thing she could think of, she pushed herself up into a sitting position, and slowly got up to take a walk and maybe use the scroll. After the incident in the afternoon, things had gotten rather awkward around the campsite. Nobody had used the waterbending scroll since, but Kai really was itching to try some of the moves. She could practice for an hour or two, burn off all that energy and then fall back to sleep. Maybe at that point she could master one of the moves. Moving over to where the scroll was when she went to sleep, she noticed the scroll was gone. She also saw that Katara was also missing.

'Damn,' Kai thought. That girl would do anything to learn waterbending. Though Kai understood her desire to learn waterbending and unlock her abilities, she didn't understand why she took it to this extreme. They were already going to the North Pole, why did she have to learn it right now. Also, breaking a promise to one of her best friends, only hours after making it. She trudged through the forest, not even caring that she had not told the others where she was going. Kai was headed back to the river where they were practicing before. There she found Katara, struggling to perform the water whip, bending a stream of water back and forth. "I thought you said you wanted nothing to do with the scroll?" Kai asked coming out of the shadows of the trees.

Katara jumped, obviously startled by Kai's presence. She dropped the water that she had been holding. "I thought you said that you didn't want to learn from it, as it made you yell at Aang," she continued. Katara only looked down at her feet ashamed. "Spirits Katara, you lied directly to mine and Aang's faces. We both trusted you, what else did you say that wasn't true?"

"I really did mean what I said, when I said it," Katara claimed. "I did feel bad about what I said, but the scroll was just there and you were all sleeping. It was calling to me. And I thought that if we were ever in a fight then, I could use what I learned and help you guys. I just feel so vulnerable sometimes. I'm a waterbender, but I can't help you and Aang or even Sokka fight because I'm untrained. I just want to help win this war and protect the ones I love."

Kai had not been expecting this response from Katara. She had expected some selfish answer about how she wanted to desperately learn waterbending for knowledge sake. But she truly wanted to help other people and she felt waterbending was the only way she could. She wanted to protect, like Kai. "Oh Katara, if you had told us that was the reason why you wanted to learn waterbending so badly we would've understood,"

"Well, I did also want to learn waterbending too, just to learn it. But mainly I wanted to help you guys," Katara admitted.

"I guess, we can talk about this with the boys in the morning, but I guess we can practice now," Kai suggested.

She took the scroll from Katara's hand and unrolled it. Spreading it out on the ground she asked Katara, "You were trying to learn the single water whip, right?"

Katara nodded. "It looks like you need to basically bend a stream of water into a ball and then direct it into a stream in the direction you wanted to go," Kai observed.

Kai decided to try this. She was able to get out of the river into the stream she wanted, then into the ball, but after that it seemed like the water just didn't want to work with her. Dropping it to the ground, she groaned falling onto her back. "Why won't it work! I mean I'm doing everything I can! I'm shifting my weight through the stances, I'm having a clear head. The water is just too stubborn. It's like it just doesn't like me."

Katara laughed, "I don't think the water hates you, Kai. Maybe we're missing something really elementary. Here let me try," Katara stepped closer to the river.

She bent the water out of the river and began twisting it back and forth shouting and random intervals about what she could better or what she could try. Kai just sat and watched her, "Maybe you're too tense?" she suggested.

Katara only groaned again, but then the two of them both heard a loud clank on the other side of the bushes to their left. They peered through the bushes to find out what it was. Katara gasped as she saw it was a small Fire Nation docked on the shore. "Shit, shit, shit," Kai muttered under her breathe, they both began to back up. Kai ran towards the forest so they could get back to Aang and Sokka, while Katara ran towards the river to grab the scroll before they left. But, she had backed up into a muscular pirate. He grabbed onto her shoulders, but she twisted and shouted, "No, let go of me," and threw a jet of water at his face.

She broke free of the man's grip and ran forward, right into Prince Zuko's hands, which latched onto her wrists. "I'll save you from the pirates," he told her.

"Not on my watch," said Kai, jumping out of the line of trees and charging towards the two, getting ready to airbend slice the other two apart. She did exactly that, pushing Zuko straight into the bushes. She grabbed Katara's hand and pulled her towards the woods. She vaguely heard Zuko groan, but she kept pushing on, until she heard someone yell, "After them!"

Then she pushed herself faster. Breathing hard next to her, Katara managed to gasp out, "You do know we're leading them straight to Aang."

Kai cursed and asked her, "Do you have any other plans?"

Katara shook her no and so Kai said, "Then our best bet is to outrun them and try to get to Aang and Sokka as fast as we can."

They continued running through the forest dodging trees and boulders. They heard that the pirates and soldiers were on their trail, but they dared not look back, for fear that they were right behind them. That was when Katara decided it was best to start making a lot of noise, "SOKKA! AANG! PIRATES AND FIRE NATION!"

"What are you doing?" Kai hissed, "Do you really want them to know exactly where we are and where we're heading?"

"It's to get them up, to give them some sort of warning about what's coming for them," Katara replied.

"I knew you were a smart one," Kai complemented, smiling still trying to keep up the pace.

The two broke into the clearing where the fire was still dimly going. Kai wondered how long they had been really been out practicing waterbending. She saw that Aang and Sokka were blearily waking up from the call that Katara had made. "Get up," Kai yelled to the boys. "We ran into trouble."

"Yeah, and they brought company," Katara added, letting her bit of Sokka seep through.

Kai began rushing to the far side of their campsite, where her belongings were located. Quickly, she scooped them neatly up in her arms when the pirates and soldiers took this time to enter the campsite. The four screamed as fireballs were launched at them and Kai dropped her stuff. They landed right in the middle of their group, cutting off Kai from the rest of the gaang. Now, there was a wall of fire stopping her from her escape, and it was growing higher with every second. There was no way that she could make it through there with no water. A nearby tree that had caught on fire fell on this wall of fire, spreading embers everywhere. Kai ducked the glowing splints as they came closer to her. Looking for an easy way to get around this wall, she saw none. There were now pirates approaching and trying to safely climb over the flaming tree to reach Kai. At that moment, Kai made a split second decision, she yelled to the others, who she could see were getting cornered by approaching soldiers, "Get out of here! Don't wait for me! I'll be fine!"

"No!" Aang yelled back.

"I'll meet up with you guys later," she screamed back. Noticing that the pirates were now clearing the fallen tree, she took off farther into the forest. Running away from the danger but also her friends.

Aang had tried to get through the wall of fire, when she had heard Kai's plan. But he was held back by the other two, and they all saw Kai run off in the opposite direction and they knew they wouldn't be able to catch up with her. Even on Appa, the forest would be too thick to see Kai through it. The approaching firebenders were getting dangerously close to their group and we're now directing all their attention on them. Aang used his staff to divert incoming fireballs as they backed up towards Appa. "Just give up, Avatar, you're outnumbered," Prince Zuko said.

"On the count of three," Sokka hissed into the other two ears.

The firebenders kept closing in on the three, thinking that they made have given up.

"One, two, three," Sokka whispered and the three made a mad dash for Appa's back. The two siblings quickly hauled themselves up onto the saddle, while Aang gracefully landed on the bison's head.

"Stop them," the captain yelled, noticing they were getting away. But before anyone could stop the group, Appa launched himself into the air, quickly climbing to create distance between the two groups.

Prince Zuko only glared at the bison as his chance at regaining his honor once again flew away from him.

* * *

Kai was still running away from the pirates. At least she was small and nimble enough to be able to dodge any incoming weapons thrown at her. This was a skill that she always had possessed. In games at her village, she was always the one to catch up to. But unfortunately, this talent would fail her soon, unless she rested, because this dodging always took up an immense part of her energy.

She spotted a cavern of rocks a little bit away from the path she was on. Looking behind her, she saw that it was dark enough that she couldn't see her pursuers, so she guessed that they couldn't see her. Kai guessed that they were far enough away that she could only barely hear their footsteps. They definitely weren't the quietest bunch, so they must be far away.

She veered herself towards the rocks, and dove into them, placing the rocks that she had moved back in front of her. It turned out to be a shallow hole, covered by rocks. Small, but not enough that she was completely crushed. Kai could manage in here. She tried to slow her breathing so they wouldn't hear her, from her hiding place. But soon enough, she heard their footsteps coming closer, so her heart beat a little faster. But then they faded away, and she let a sigh of relief.

Kai decided it was a good idea to at least stay here for tonight, then she could venture out and see if everyone was gone. Hopefully by that time, she could return to the campsite and be able to gather her stuff again. They wouldn't pay attention to the discard bag, blanket, and guitar. At that point, she would be able to start traveling north and met up with the others. Kai hoped that Sokka would stay to the plan that they had mapped out, so she would be able to follow them. She would just need to move fast and she could catch up to them, Kai though optimistically. Kai wrapped her arms around her body, wanting to get warm and curled up into a tighter ball, to preserve heat. Hesitantly, she closed her eyes. Kai would open them every few minutes and listen to her surroundings, but she only heard the natural birds calling and crickets. Soon, she couldn't even will herself to do this anymore, and she allowed her body to finally rest.

* * *

**Oh no! Kai does seem to get into trouble, but don't worry she's a big girl. Please, please, please review. More reviews equally a faster chapter to come out, since they give me more confidence. **


	8. Ch 8: Grey Eyed Girl

**Hi, guys! So this update took a bit more time than usual, but it's also longer. By the way I will be going back to school in about 2 weeks so updates will be a little more spaced out. I aim to get at least 2 chapters out before then, but no worry, I will not abandon this fic. I just am going to be busy in the fall, so if I don't update for a while please understand. Also a big thank you and shout out for my friend from camp who basically gave me the idea for the chapter and helped me through it, you know who you are! **

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender or My fault by Imagine Dragons or Trouble by P!nk

* * *

"Chapter 8: Grey-Eyed Girl"

Kai woke up extremely sore. To try to cure this, she stretched out her arms and legs. But, both ends of her body hit dirt immediately. Kai looked around confused why this would happen. She always slept in open space, so why wouldn't she be able to stretch out. But groaning, she remembered that last night wasn't like other nights, and she was now on her own. The pirates and soldiers had separated her from her friends which meant no more Appa, to fly her places, and no more friends to watch her back. Kai almost didn't want to get up. But at the same time Kai knew that she would only have to spend more time traveling alone if she didn't get up now, she began to move the rocks above her head.

Kai hadn't heard any soldiers before she moved the rock, so hopefully, Zuko and his crew would all be gone by now. She poked her head out of her hiding hole and squinted at the bright light. It looked like that the forest around had not experienced any unnatural disturbance since Kai came around. She pushed the rocks out of the way and lifted herself out of the hole. Standing up rather slowly because blood began rushing to her head, she tried to orient herself. Kai saw that the leaves to her left were a bit ruffled and pressed down into the ground, so she assumed that she had come from that direction last night. Kai determined it was her best bet to head back in that direction. Although in the back her mind, she knew that she may be heading straight for a trap, Kai no longer cared. She was, in a rather crude way to say it, pissed off. She had no idea, if she would even be able to catch up to her friends before they reached the North Pole, no map to even show her north, and no food as of now. If any Fire Nation or even pirates crossed her path, they would feel the wrath of a cranky teenage girl.

Kai, after an hour or so of wandering, reached the former campsite. She could see several burn marks on the trees surrounding it while a large black mark stretched across the campsite, where she guessed the wall of fire had been. Luckily, the night had proved useful for once and put out all evidence of the fight. She was quite cautious around the campsite for fear that the people that she had been running from the night before were still there. But, it seemed like that had long left the area. She gathered her stuff that she had left the night before, and Kai opened her bag to see what was still in it as the pirates may have raided it and she had shared her personal supplies with her friends.

It turned out that she still had one more set of clothes identical to what she wore, a water skin, an extra guitar pick, and a few nuts that she had collected with the group. Sighing, she deftly unshelled the nuts and tossed them into her mouth. But,it wasn't enough to quell her grumbling stomach. Kai wouldn't be able survive on forest findings for very long. Without Sokka, she wouldn't be able to get any meat, primarily because he had all their weapons and because she had never been taught or wanted to kill animals. Kai needed to find somewhere that had more substantial food or someway to obtain it. Also, she needed to find some sort of map so she had some idea about where she was heading. She didn't want to be accidentally walking south instead of north. Kai shrugged the knapsack on her shoulder after stuffing her sleeping supplies tightly into it and picked up her guitar case and began walking out of the clearing without a second thought.

Kai knew that it was best to follow the river that she was practicing on the night before if she wanted to find a town. Her basic knowledge of geography had at least taught her that many Earth Kingdom towns were near a water source. Kai was able to figure out which was north by remembering what direction they were facing before they landed.

* * *

The trek took her most of the day before she found the first town. At this point she was so sick of traveling, Kai decided to set up camp outside the town, not go into it. But, her grumbling stomach refused to let her rest just yet, and it made her walk all around the surrounding forest to search for berries or edible mushrooms. Kai gathered as many as she could before the sun set because without any spark rocks, she wouldn't be able to lit a fire and, that also would mean she would be without a light and heat source for the first time in years. She first ate her meager meal and then snuggled down on her pad on the ground, rolling into a tight ball to conserve heat and wrapped the blanket around her. Kai braced herself for another uncomfortable night. It felt that the world was just working against her the past few days. Pushing those thoughts out her mind, she desperately tried to sleep.

Waking up again was a difficult task for Kai. As she was cold from sleeping with no fire, she did not want to abandon her warm sanctuary, also known as her blanket, and face the world yet again. She would be again walking today, after she first stopped in town. She hoped that the gaang was not too far ahead of her because she wasn't sure how many more days she could take with this endless walking without being fed up with it and give up. Kai had definitely been spoiled from flying on Appa for the last few weeks. She would be sure to give him an extra long petting session when she caught up to her friends again to show him her thanks for letting her ride him.

Kai picked up her supplies and wandered into the town. There her plan would go into effect. See, she had thought of this the night before she fell asleep. She would use one of her talents, singing, to earn money. She was sure that she could at least earn a few copper pieces to buy a map of the area or something. Trying to remind herself of these positive thoughts, she walked confidently into town. It looked like any ordinary village. People were going about their business like usual, not really caring that a war was going on. It was such a refreshing change for once.

Kai had missed this type of normality that her tribe had given her. Although it was great to be traveling with her new found friends, her life at her tribe was so much simpler. She knew that she was safe, and could do the same thing every day. Kai knew her place and that used to comfort her. Now she couldn't even predict where she would be going from day to day. Sighing to herself, she set herself up on a corner of a market. She had observed that this section had a lot of traffic which meant that she had a greater chance at earning more money.

Kai set her supplies on the ground, opened the guitar case, and began fiddling with it before she put the strap over herself. Thinking for a minute, she came up with the perfect song for the occasion.

_I took a walk on a Saturday night,_

_fog in the air,_

_just to make my mind seem clear_

_where do I go from here?_

_I see my breath pushing steam through the air,_

_shaking hands run through my hair,_

_my fears, where do I go from here?_

_Is it my fault, is it my fault?_

_We've been missing each other,_

_We've been missing each other._

_My fault, is it my fault?_

_We've been missing each other,_

_We've been missing each other._

_Walking down to the waters edge,_

_asking why I'm here instead of home,_

_now I stand alone._

_I stop to stare at the ocean side_

_I'm breathing in just to feel it's side_

_with his_

_like you were here with me._

_Is it my fault, is it my fault?_

_We've been missing each other,_

_We've been missing each other._

_My fault, is it my fault?_

_We've been missing each other,_

_We've been missing each other._

_Oh its on the wall, its loud,_

_its in the brightest light,_

_its when the world is moving._

_Oh its in the faintest cry,_

_its in the lovers eye,_

_its when I need you most,_

_And don't you know,_

_Is it my fault, is it my fault?_

_We've been missing each other,_

_We've been missing each other._

_My fault, is it my fault?_

_We've been missing each other,_

_We've been missing each other._

_Is it my fault, is it my fault?_

_We've been missing each other,_

_We've been missing each other._

_My fault, is it my fault?_

_We've been missing each other,_

_We've been missing each other_

Kai finished the last notes of the song and looked down into the open guitar case, that welcomed coins from any people walking by and saw there was a fair amount of coins. Kai hadn't noticed the coins before hand because music made her just get caught up in her own world. But, she bet if she kept this up for a while, she would be able to buy the necessary supplies for her trip. She immediately started her next song, and continued on like this for quite some while. She would only stop occasionally to take a drink of water from her water skin. That was until she heard another voice singing. There was another girl roughly around her age and she could tell was Earth Kingdom by her skin color and her dark, green, brown, sleeveless tunic held together by a thin leather belt on the waist. A long light brown shirt was underneath it and she was wearing tall laced up boots. She had dark brown black hair cut at her chin, and had grey eyes. A grey hat covered part of her face and effectively shaded her from the harsh sun.

She was drawing the small crowd that Kai had begun to gather over the last hour away from her. Kai heard the girl in the middle of her song sing.

**You think your right**

**But you were wrong**

**You tried to take me**

**But I knew all along**

**You can take me**

**For a ride**

**I'm not a fool out**

**So you better run and hide**

The worst part of the situation was that she was actually good. Probably somewhat close to the the level Kai was at. If there were many girls like this throughout the world, maybe Kai wasn't as good as she thought she was. Then, a devious idea struck her as she recognized the song and she picked up at the chorus.

_I'm trouble_

_Yeah trouble now_

_I'm trouble ya'll_

_I got trouble in my town_

The girl looked momentarily surprised that another voice was singing this song, so she stopped at first when Kai began to sing loudly. The attention was drawn happily back to Kai.

_I'm trouble_

_Yeah trouble now_

_I'm trouble ya'll_

_I got trouble in my town_

Then, the girl's eyes narrowed, and a new determination took over and she began singing louder than Kai.

**If you see me coming**

**Down the street then**

**You know it's time to**

**Go (and you know it's time to go**

**'Cause here comes trouble)**

But, Kai wasn't going to let this opportunity get away from her, so she matched the other girl's volume

_No attorneys_

_To plead my case_

**No orbits**

**To send me into outta space**

**And my fingers**

_Are bejeweled_

_With diamonds and gold_

**But that ain't gonna help me now**

Soon, both the girls were singing at the loudest they could and their voices merged together.

_**You think your right**_

_**But you were wrong**_

_**You tried to take me**_

_**But I knew all along**_

_**You can take me**_

_**For a ride**_

_**'Cause I'm not a fool out**_

_**So you better run and hide**_

_**I'm trouble**_

_**Yeah trouble now**_

_**I'm trouble ya'll**_

_**I disturb my town**_

_**I'm trouble**_

_**Yeah trouble now**_

_**I'm trouble ya'll**_

_**I got trouble in my town**_

_**So if you see me coming**_

_**Down the street then**_

_**You know it's time to**_

_**Go (go-oh-oh..I got)**_

_**Trouble**_

_**Yeah trouble now**_

_**I'm trouble ya'll**_

_**I got trouble in my town**_

Kai looked up at the other girl and saw that she was clearly enjoying this, so that made Kai smile too and allow herself to enjoy it.

_**I'm trouble**_

_**Yeah trouble now**_

_**I'm trouble ya'll**_

_**I got trouble in my town**_

_**Trouble**_

_**Yeah trouble now**_

_**I'm trouble ya'll**_

_**I got trouble in my town**_

_**I'm trouble**_

_**Yeah trouble now**_

_**I'm trouble ya'll**_

_**I got trouble in my town**_

_**I got trouble in my town**_

_**I got trouble in my town**_

The crowd cheered at the end of the song, leaving the two girls breathless because of the intensity of the moment. The group of people equally split giving money to both the girls and complimenting them

After though, the girl walked from her spot across the street where she had been standing and towards Kai. "Not bad" said the girl. Kai had started to pack up because she thought that she had enough money to get enough supplies to start her journey off. Also since the group had dispersed, it didn't seem like Kai would catch their attention again.

"Thanks, you are good too," replied Kai.

"I know," she scoffed. "My name's Azimi," the girl said, sticking out her hand.

"Kai," said the Avatar's Apprentice, taking the hand and shaking it.

"I can see that you're not from around here," Azimi remarked. "What are you doing in my town? Usually, I own that street corner, I want to know if I have any competition. Not that I'll be worried about it."

"I'm just passing through," Kai explained. "I got seperated from my friends I was traveling with and I'm trying to catch up to them. I needed money for supplies and stuff."

Kai saw that the girl's face had softened when she heard that Kai was staying here permanently. But now instead of being so defensive, the girl began to be curious. Kai began to move away from the nosy girl as she really needed to get on her way if she had any chance to catch up to the rest of the gaang. She just needed to stop by the local market and pick up some stuff. But the girl, Azimi, obviously didn't understand this and began running to catch up to where Kai was walking. "Hey, I'll come with you. Without me, you would get cheated on prices for stuff. I can get you stuff for half the price," Azimi said.

Kai gave up on trying to shake this girl off of her tail, so she let Azimi whisk her off towards the market. Kai explained on the way what she needed and let Azimi take her from stall to stall, buying everything she needed. During the whole process though, Azimi would stop and talk for a while to each shop owner so by the time that Kai had finished her shopping, it was already noon. This was at least two hours after when she had predicted that she would leave the village.

"Well, thank you Azimi for everything, but I really have to get on my way if I have any chance to catching up to my friends," said Kai kindly.

"Before you leave, you have to come and meet my family. I mean they would love to meet any girl who is half as good as me," Azimi said confident.

Kai's eyes narrowed at the last comment, but she had begun to get used to these comments as she had heard Azimi say all sorts of these things during their shopping adventure. So at least Kai knew that these comments weren't just directed at her. "I don't know-"started Kai not trying to seem rude.

But Azimi cut her off mid sentence and said, "You're a traveler. You can have lunch before you go," and latched onto Kai's arm and started to drag her towards what could only be her house.

So Kai, unless she wanted to attack this girl, had no choice but to follow the girl's wishes. Besides, her grumbling stomach was almost crying out for a nice home cooked meal. So she allowed the girl to take her

It turned out that Azimi was actually the daughter of a farmer, and they had to walk a fair distance reach her house. But when they got there, Azimi broke away from Kai and ran up to her front door yelling, "Mom I met a friend in town and she's a traveler and I want to feed her."

"_I'm not a pet,"_ Kai thought as she walked into the house.

Azimi introduced Kai to her mother and Kai bowed respectfully back to her. "You'll have to excuse my daughter," Azimi's mother explained. "She tends to be very forceful at times. She means well though."

Azimi glared at her mother while Kai just laughed. "It's fine ma'am, Azimi helped me get supplies for my travels. She was very kind."

"Oh, yes, Azimi did say something about you being a traveler," the woman said. "That's why she wanted you to stay for lunch. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"No, ma'am, I'll be leaving soon, but I would like to first take you up on your offer for dinner. It's been awhile since I've had a home cooked meal," Kai kindly explained.

"Of course, my dear," the woman replied. Azimi standing behind her smiled, so Kai smiled too. Azimi was starting to grow on Kai. Even though it meant Kai getting off track from her traveling, it was nice to have this home life back, even if it wasn't hers.

It turned out that Azimi actually had quite a large family. She was the oldest, but she had four younger brothers and sisters. The meal was very nice, Azimi's mother and father kept trying to get Kai to eat more, which Kai did happily. It was very loud though, something that Kai was not used to, even back at her village. It was always a more subdue affair during meals there, and also with the gaang. But at Azimi's home, everyone was constantly talking and asking each other questions. Kai couldn't eat quickly at times because Azimi's younger siblings were very curious and kept asking her stuff. The family seemed very interested that she was from the Water Tribe and was traveling. Kai told them about her family and her friends and why they were traveling. She left out that her bald friend was the Avatar and that she was actually his Apprentice. She simply told them that they were waterbenders. Kai felt that it would be better this way. Aang's openness about telling people that he was the Avatar often got him into trouble and Kai didn't want to add more trouble to this kind family. She did tell them how she was separated from her friends and that she was trying to meet up with them.

So after the meal was finished, Azimi and her father offered to help Kai map out her journey to catch up with her friends. Since the harbor town was the only place that distinctly stuck in her mind, they showed her where she was and where the town was. Which was very helpful since Kai usually left the map reading to Sokka and it turned out her skills were a bit rusty. Kai pointed out the path that Sokka had showed her though.

"Oh no you don't want to go that way," Azimi immediately said after that.

"Why not?" Kai asked through gritted teeth because she felt like insulting that path was like insulting Sokka, and she felt that she needed to defend her friend

"That's not a direct route there," Azimi explained. "You can go up the coast in half the time and that way you'll be able to avoid the Great Divide

"But that's where my friend, Sokka, said many towns were taken over by the Fire Nation, and I want to avoid them as much as possible," Kai argued.

"Unfortunately, many of the towns in the Western Earth Kingdom all already taken over by the Fire Nation, even in the path you were suggesting," Azimi's father, a large Earth Kingdom man, said grimly.

"Yeah, so it isn't worth it going the long route," Azimi reasoned.

"I don't know…." Kai trailed off.

"I know what you need. You need a guide, someone that knows the area and can lead you through the area. Someone like me," Azimi said simply.

"Azimi!" her father yelled out, slamming his hand on the table. "You cannot just invite yourself to go with this girl. Besides it's too dangerous."

"But father," Azimi whined. "I can do this. I can help this girl meet up with her friends again so she can train at the North Pole and maybe make a difference in this war."

"No, Azimi," said her father.

"Father, I'm not helpless. I've been practicing with my kamas and I'm really good. I could easily take out some Fire Nation people if I needed to. I mean you've seen me, wouldn't it be better if this girl had another person to help and look out for her," Azimi reasoned.

"I know you mean well, sweetheart, but what would you do when this girl reached her destination and found her friends? Tag along with her companions and slow down their group? Stay in that town?"

"No, I would head back home on my own," Azimi said.

"I just don't want to see you get hurt," said her father finally defeated.

"I won't father, I promise," said his daughter.

" Your mother better not skin me alive for saying this but I guess it's up to Kai then, if she wants you to come along."

Azimi looked up at Kai hopefully. She guessed that it might be a good idea to have another person to look out for her. Also, she wouldn't be as lonely. But could she trust this girl? She didn't even know that she was the Avatar's Apprentice and how dangerous it is to travel with her. Finally, she shrugged her shoulders and said, "Hell, why not."

Azimi jumped up into the air and ran over to hug Kai in delight. "I'm just going to get my stuff and then we can go," and Azimi ran out of the room.

"I guess I'll go tell her mother then," and left Kai alone in the room.

She very awkwardly sat in the room, looking around at the walls because she had nothing better to do. What had she gotten herself into? I mean she just invited an innocent Earth Kingdom girl to come on an adventure with her without much thought. What if she got hurt because of Kai? She couldn't live with herself hurting another family.

* * *

Azimi had said goodbye to her family. It had taken a little bit of effort to convince her mother to let her go with Kai, but her father was finally able to do this. Azimi seemed very excited about going on this journey with Kai, even if it meant that she was leaving her family.

Azimi set them off on the path that she had already predetermined. She walked with a certain bounce in her step. They reached the forest behind her family's farm and she asked, "So you're a bender right?" Kai nodded her head yes. "That's cool but you know what's even cooler, I'm a non-bender but I can kick some serious ass with these kamas," pulling two weapons out of her bag. They were about as long as Azimi's forearm and wood. But at the end of them there was a curved piece of metal about half as long as the wood part and had five little round holes on the metal. The two were identical.

"So have you ever used them against anyone?" asked Kai curiously.

"Well never in a fight, but why should I need them in a fight if I've never gotten in trouble with anyone. But, my dad taught me and I know I'm pretty good with them," Azimi explained

"You think that but…" Kai muttered.

"What was that?" asked Azimi.

"Nothing, nothing, so where do you think we'll get to today?" Kai questioned.

"I think we'll definitely be able to hit the coast today," Azimi told Kai.

The two girls continued walking north. Azimi continued to tell Kai about all the things she is able to do and about her home life and so forth. Kai eventually began to block Azimi's chattering out and only occasionally nodded at certain points it seemed like this girl would never stop talking. But, apparently when she finally couldn't come up with things to say about herself she began asking Kai endless questions, about her home, family, friends, waterbending and fighting in general. Although, Kai gave answer after answer, she had to hold her patience not to snap at the girl to shut up.

They reached the coastline in the evening because apparently Azimi did know where to go. At this point, the girl with grey eyes began asking Kai to duel since they were now near the ocean, so Kai could use her element. Kai kept insisting that they didn't have time for things like this, and they needed to keep moving. But by the time that they stopped to camp for the night, Azimi had asked so many times that Kai reluctantly agreed.

The two took their places opposite each other with about twenty feet away in between them. Azimi took out her kamas and Kai summoned some water from the ocean nearby. It was now becoming darker because the sun was setting. "No deliberately hurting each other or seriously injuring the other," Kai yelled to Azimi. "We still have to travel and I don't want us to get hurt."

"Alright, we'll do that since you're too chicken to face me any other way," Azimi yelled back cheekily.

Kai almost growled at this bait but she knew that she couldn't get angry since that was the opposite of bending or at least airbending and Kai assumed waterbending too. Even though she was determined not to use airbending because that would reveal who she was to Azimi, which Kai didn't think was a good idea yet, she could at least fight like an airbender.

She allowed Azimi to make the first attack and she ran and Kai with her Kamas. But Kai was ready for this and quickly sidestepped out of the way at the last minute, and then spun on her heel to face Azimi again. She looked confused that Kai could've done that so fast. But, Kai took this momentary confusion and sent a jet of water at Azimi. This pushed her back but she recovered rolling into the wave to catch herself. Kai smirked at Azimi which aggravated her even more and began to run at her again. But, Kai used the momentum of Azimi and sent a jet of water around her ankle and effectively tripped her. So Azimi sprawled out right in front of Kai. But then Azimi took hold of Kai's ankle and sent her falling down too.

Azimi took the opportunity to stand over Kai and smirk and was about to threaten Kai with one of her kamas when she pushed Azimi back with her legs in her gut. She then was able to stand up and face a deeply breathing Azimi.

The girl began to charge at Kai again, but Kai was able to freeze the water she was holding in her hands and block each attack. Though the kamas chipped the ice, they weren't able to break through to Kai's hands. When both of the kamas were stuck in the ice, Kai pushed Azimi back, knocking the kamas out of her grasp. She fell on her back knocking the breath out of her.

Kai ran over to Azimi and stood with a foot on Azimi's chest gently pushing on in to prevent her from sitting back up, even though she tried to struggle out from under. Kai bent a stream of water so she was holding it over Azimi and smiled saying, "" I win," and dropped the water that she had been holding on Azimi's face.

She spluttered, spitting the salt water out of her mouth and Kai removed her foot from Azimi's chest to let her up. She used her elbows to push herself into a sitting position using her sleeves to whip the last of the water from her face. "I guess you're good," admitted Azimi. "But, it sounds like you've gotten more practice than me in fights, if I fought you in another week I bet I could beat you."

"Sure, Azimi, sure," Kai said, rolling her eyes.

"I'm serious," said Azimi. "I could take you if I wanted to, we could have a rematch and…"

"Let's get some sleep. We need to focus on getting to that harbor town in about a week instead of fighting each other. Besides if we were to be attacked now, Azimi. We would be dead exhausted. We would be like sitting turtle ducks," explained Kai, rolling out her blanket and setting up her mat to sleep on.

"Fine,"Azimi reluctantly agreed.

* * *

The next few days continued like this. They would get up, walk while talking about things in their lives, stop for meals which Azimi was able to get because Azimi was better at using the kamas so she could catch animals better. Then, after dinner they would duel each other. Azimi would always lose though. She was slowly improving, but still didn't match the skill of Kai, even though Kai wasn't all that good herself. She just had practiced hand to hand fighting with her tribe more and she was able to apply the concepts of her bending to her fighting style.

But then the two began to run into more and more sea side villages. These villages were more often than not controlled by the Fire Nation. It always made Kai nervous going through these, but there wasn't like she could avoid going through them without completely disrupting her travel plans. So instead Azimi and Kai just kept their heads down passing through these towns. Most of the time they didn't even run into Fire Nation soldiers, just civilians.

That was until one day when they were passing through the Fire Nation colony of Yu Dao. There they saw a whole group of Fire Nation soldiers. That made Kai tense up, but Azimi began dragging her along, saying, "There's no other way, there all over the town. Just act like you haven't got anything to hide, and they will leave you alone.

Kai nodded silently, gulping, and continued to go on. That was until she saw what the soldiers were doing. They were putting up wanted posters and asking civilians walking by if they had seen any of these people. These civilians would say no and they would be able to move on. But, the problem was that Kai saw one of these posters had a little boy with a blue arrow on his head and then the next one was of a shorter girl dressed in sky blue clothing with her dark hair in a high ponytail. It was her, she realized. She had finally been recognized as the Avatar's Apprentice and was now being hunted down by the Fire Nation. Azimi and Kai couldn't sneak past these soldiers if one of the people they were looking for was Kai. Looking to her right, she saw an alleyway and Kai grabbed Azimi's arm and pulled her into it.

She pushed her against the wall and said, "We can't go that way."

"Why not?" Azimi asked. "I just said that we would be ok as long as we acted confidant. You agreed."

Kai took a deep breath before saying, "Azimi, there's something I haven't told you. I just didn't want you to get caught up in this mess and get hurt because you knew this. Just trust me on this, we can't go that way."

"Ok, now you're scaring me Kai, what have you done that's made you so nervous around the Fire Nation that you're worried they're going to attack you. Did you kill a Fire Nation soldier? Are you going to kill me?" Azimi asked, now trying to struggling out of Kai's grasp and she began to scream for help but Kai put a hand over her mouth, muffling any sound.

"No, no, it's not like that," Kai said quickly. Azimi stopped struggling after that. "Just listen to me," she said, removing her hand. "I just haven't been completely honest about who I am. You saw that those soldiers were putting up wanted posters. Well I can't go that way, because I'm on one of those wanted posters. You see, I'm the Avatar's Apprentice."

Azimi's eyes turned wide and she started to yell out, "You're the-"

But, Kai caught her off mid-sentence by placing her hand back over Azimi's mouth. "Don't scream it out, do you want us to get caught?"

Azimi shook her head no, and Kai once again removed her hand. "But..what..how?" Azimi choked out.

"I think the how is that I was born," said Kai smartly.

"But..." Azimi still stuttered out.

"Really, it's not that big of a deal. It just means I need to be a bit more careful around the Fire Nation or and I need to help the Avatar defeat the Fire Lord."

"Wait the Avatar..?" asked Azimi

"Yeah, the friends I'm traveling to meet are actually the Avatar and two of his friends," Kai expanded. "So now you know why it's crucial for me to meet up with them again."

"No kidding," muttered Azimi darkly. "So, how are we going to get past those Fire Nation soldiers, it's not like you can just cruise past saying, nope that girl even though she looks just like me, isn't me. I'm just her identical twin."

"Not a bad plan," Kai said seriously pondering that idea

"Kai!" Azimi snapped. "I was just kidding, there's no way that can work. We'll have to think of something else."

Kai tried thinking of something for the next minute, but an idea struck her, and she grabbed for Azimi's cap. "What are you doing ?" she asked, reaching for her hat but Kai warded off the incoming attacks and shushed Azimi. She scooped her hair up on top of her head and placed the hat over it. "Now all I need is something to cover up my clothes," she muttered to herself. "Azimi, go out there at get me some sort of loose traveling cloak."

"Why?" Azimi whined.

"Just do it," Kai snapped back.

"Fine, once someone reveals they are the Avatar's Apprentice they think they can just order people around," Azimi muttered, walking out of the alley.

"I heard that," Kai yelled after her, smiling.

After a few minutes, Azimi snuck back into the alley with a plain long green cloak. "Thanks," Kai said, pulling the cloak over her head. She adjusted her hat and said, "This is how we're going to get past those I'm now a boy. Perfect disguise. You can be my girlfriend."

"Are you sure about this?" asked Azimi for the first time that Kai had known her, she sounded apprehensive. "I feel like I should be the one disguised as a boy."

"Why would you want that? I'm the one that needs to be incognito."

Azimi shrugged her shoulders saying, "I don't know. I just had a weird feeling that I should."

"Come on, let's do this," and Kai stepped out of the shadows looking to see if the soldiers were looking their way. But, their attentions were currently focused on the citizens they were showing the posters to. So, Kai confidently strolled down the street holding Azimi's hand but quickly changing to holding her around the waist. "It looks more real this way," Kai assured Azimi. They walked past the soldiers hoping that they wouldn't be caught. But then one of the soldiers yelled out, "Hey you two, yes you, the couple, get over here."

Kai and Azimi reluctantly turned around and Azimi asked, "What's the problem, sir?"

"We've been looking for these traitors and enemies by posting this posters, but our commanding officer thought it would be better if we asked civilians if they've seen these people," the soldier explained.

"Ok, sir, but I don't think my boyfriend and I would know any of these people. We like to stay out of trouble," Azimi expertly said.

"Is there anything wrong with your boyfriend? He seems awfully quiet," said the soldier speculatively.

"Oh him, he's just got a little winter sickness, he lost his voice because of it," Azimi lied and Kai coughed just to make it seem more realistic. "But don't worry he's not contagious, and he's completely fine other than that, trust me he's still an excellent kisser."

Kai couldn't glare at Azimi for her last comment, so she merely shyly smiled. The soldier scrutinized the couple for a minute more before saying, "Alright."

He began showing the two a bunch of posters with people Kai could honestly she did know. But, Azimi was able to answer for the both of them and Kai would just occasionally shake her head. Then they got to the poster of Aang and Azimi read that he was the Avatar at this point. "The Avatar?" she questioned innocently. "He's back? He's alive?"

"Yes," the soldier replied simply. "But that doesn't concern you unless you've seen him."

"If I didn't even know he was back, then how could've seen him," Azimi replied. But the soldier didn't seem satisfied with that answer so she said, "That would be a no, I haven't seen him."

"Well have you seen this girl, she might be traveling with the Avatar," and he showed the two the poster with Kai on it. Her heartbeat quickened at the sight of herself on a wanted poster. But, Azimi took care of the response for both of them and replied calmly but at the same point acted a bit annoyed, "No I haven't seen her and neither has my boyfriend I know for a fact because we don't get mixed up with this crowd of people. We probably won't know anyone else that you'll show. Please mister just let us pass, you've already held us up for long enough. We only have a certain amount of time until our parents get home and I want to spend at least a little time alone with my boyfriend."

The soldier looked at the two for a long time again but finally he understood what Azimi was implicating and sighed saying, "Fine you kids can go, just don't get into too much trouble and if you see these people then you tell us, consider doing that a favor repaid for letting you two go now."

"Thanks, we will," Azimi said, giggling and taking Kai's hand and began pulling her away from the soldiers.

They quickly exited the town after that walking into the woods at the other side of town. Once it was out of Kai's eyesight, she pulled off Azimi's hat and the cloak. "That was brilliant," she said laughing, giving back Azimi the hat, who fastened it on her head.

"Thank you, very much," she said, giving a mock bow.

"You sounded like we were going to have a heated makeout session or more in the woods. That soldier looked so uncomfortable with the whole situation."

"I know, by the end he was wishing that he never stopped us."

"You know, you can pull off ditzy girl very sure you haven't had any experience with that,"teased Kai, smirking.

"Shut up," Azimi replied, playfully hitting Kai's arm. "I've just had a lot of research with girls in my town." Kai roared with laughter. "Hey you seem a lot different.."

"Yeah, I guess that holding in that secret about being the Avatar's Apprentice made me a bit more tense. Sorry I didn't tell you earlier by the way."

"It's ok," Azimi reassured her. "I'm just wondering why you didn't tell me? Did you feel that you couldn't trust me?"

"No, it's nothing like that. Well maybe in the beginning, but I just didn't want you to get hurt because that you knew who I was," explained Kai. "Sometimes people get hurt after they know I'm the Avatar's Apprentice and I didn't want that to happen to you. I mean look at those soldiers, what if they thought you were lying."

Azimi hugged Kai, and said, "Oh Kai, that's really nice but I think that I can take care of myself."

"Sure, Azimi, sure, but remember who's won all of our practice fights," Kai reminded her.

"Yes, but I now know that you only won those because you're the Avatar's Apprentice, so you're like super powerful, so I'm actually as good as I know I am. I mean I never expected to take down the Avatar or his Apprentice. Just a bunch of Fire Nation soldiers," said Azimi, smiling.

Kai only rolled her eyes and the two continued on like they hadn't almost got caught by the Fire Nation a little while ago.

* * *

After their little run in with the Fire Nation, the two girls were now more careful going through Fire Nation colonies. They always donned their disguises as boyfriend and ditzy girlfriend while passing through to look inconspicuous. No one would pay much attention to a passionate young couple. They never had a close run in with the Fire Nation like the one in Yu Dao when they were dressed this way.

They were still walking because they hadn't reached the harbor town yet. The two were pushing their deadline to get there because from Sokka's prediction the group was supposed to get there yesterday, but knowing her friends, they had a great probability that they got into some sort of trouble along the way. That usually slowed them down. Azimi understood Kai's worries so they were now trying to pick up the pace by jogging at times so they would reach the town faster.

But, that was when a shadow covered their pathway behind and in front of them. Azimi was confused so she looked up and pointed and asked Kai, "What do you think that is?"

Kai glanced upwards and her eyes widened. "That's Appa!" she cried.

"The giant flying buffalo?"

"Bison," Kai instectively corrected. "We found them! Come on, we need to get their attention. We can't follow them forever."

The two began running to keep up with Appa's pace and began to yell, calling out all their names. They jumped up and down, but Kai's friends didn't see them at all. So, Kai made a rash decision and ran towards a tree and used airbending to jump up. She grabbed onto one of the branches and pulled herself up onto it. Using one hand on the trunk to steady herself, she called with all her might, "HEY AIRHEAD!"

This got their attention as Aang turned around on the saddle. She began waving her hands crazily to gain his attention. He turned Appa around, but Kai at the same time lost balance of the branch she was standing on and fell off it. She was able to grab the branch with her hands, so she was now dangling from the branch.

By this time, Aang and the others had landed and they rushed over to see Kai dangling like that. "Hey guys, long time no see, think you could help me get down?" she asked.

"Just hold on, Kai, I'm going to airbend a cushion for you," Aang yelled up to her. "Ok, it's all ready, all you have to do is let go."

She closed her eyes, and prayed to the spirits that Aang wouldn't hurt her, but then she let go of the branch and fell all the way down, until she felt a soft cushion, and then was let down a few more feet. She collapsed on the ground, and when she opened her eyes, Kai saw three of her friends standing over her. "What's up?" she casually asked.

Aang grabbed her by her arm, helping Kai up, but then pulled her into a deep hug. "We were so worried about you."

"Aww I missed you Aang," Kai said. "And you Katara," moving over to give her a hug. "And Appa and Momo," petting each creature. She moved to Sokka and said, "Ehh"

Sokka gave her a pleading look and Kai said, "Of course I missed you Sokka."

After greeting her friends Kai said, "And this is my friend, Azimi," introducing her.

Azimi added, "Hi, I'm Azimi, also sometimes known as Kai's fake girlfriend, and I found Kai after she got separated from you guys, and without me she would've never gotten anywhere," which Kai could only glare.

"Contrary to what Azimi said, I was not completely helpless. I was doing just fine before Azimi showed up," Kai amended.

"Cool!" said Aang, "Is she coming with us?"

"No," Azimi replied. "I promised my father that I would go back home once Kai found her friends again. He won't believe that Kai is the Avatar's Apprentice and you're the Avatar though," she laughed.

"I'm going to miss you," said Kai, hugging Azimi. "You take the map and the little bit of money we have left over, to get you back home. Stay safe, ok?"

"Like I said before, I can take a bunch of Fire Nation soldiers if I get in trouble," Azimi smiled.

She said goodbye to the rest of Kai's friends, before turning and starting to walk back the way she came, without a look back.

Sokka came up behind Kai and put a hand on her shoulder. "Come on, we need to get to the North Pole."

"I know, I'll just miss her," she said sadly.

"You can tell us about her on the way," Sokka told her. "And why exactly you're her fake girlfriend?"

She laughed and started to turn back to Appa and bargained, "Only if you tell me about what happened when I was gone."

"Don't worry, I'll tell you about Katara's evil boyfriend," Sokka responded.

"He's wasn't my boyfriend," Katara yelled at the same time as Aang yelled, "He wasn't her boyfriend!"

Kai could only giggle, happy that she was back with her friends again.

* * *

**So as always thanks for reading and I would really appreciate it if you took the time to review. I would love to take your ideas into consideration when writing this. Expect another update in less than a week and then another even closer to that since I already have about ⅔ of that chapter written. **


	9. Ch 9: The Storm

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender**

* * *

The Storm

After splitting up from Azimi, the gaang began telling Kai about what had happened when she was gone. First, Sokka had decided that the reason that they had been caught so much was because of Appa, so like Kai, the three began to walk their way to the North Pole.  
But like some ideas of Sokka, that didn't work out and they ended up walking straight into Fire Nation camp. There they meet this guy called Jet, who him and his friends saved them from the soldiers. But, it turned out that Jet was very anti- Fire Nation. This would've been ok but he ended up using the group to try flood and destroy an occupied Earth Kingdom town. Sokka was able to warn them at the last minute though, and nobody ended up dead. But this ruined any crush that Katara had on Jet at the same time. They left the forest very bitter. Next, they apparently got sidetracked by being forced into escorting two groups of travelers across the Great Divide, and Aang managed to solve the groups problems with each other by essentially lying.

After that they had run into Kai, who's turn it was to continue on with what she did when she was separated. She told them about meeting Azimi and their travels together. They were particularly amused when Kai told them about getting away from the Fire Nation soldier. When Kai was finished, it was nearly nightfall and Kai remembered the mental promise about giving Appa a long petting session, so she followed through with it, while the others were setting up camp. They had a short dinner chatting and laughing. The group fell asleep soon after. But in the middle of the night, Aang woke up suddenly which startled Momo, who jumped on each of the other kids, waking them up. Sokka shot up with his boomerang and machete and asked sleepily, "What's going on? Did we get captured again?"

"No, Sokka, everybody's here," Kai said tired.

"Yeah, it's nothing. I just had a bad dream. Go back to sleep," Aang told them.

"Don't have to tell me twice," mumbled Sokka, falling back into his sleeping bag.

"Are you alright, Aang?" Katara asked concerned.

"I'm okay," he replied turning away from the two girls.

"You seem to be having a lot nightmares lately. You want to tell me about it?"

"You've been having nightmares, it's really good to talk about them then," Kai added. "That sometimes helps make them go away."

"No, it's fine, I think I just need some rest," replied Aang.

"You guys want to hear about my dream?" Sokka asked Kai and Katara only had to glare at him, for Sokka to say, "That's okay, I didn't want to talk about it anyway."

Seeing that they weren't going to be able to solve the problem right now, Katara and Kai decided to get some sleep.

They four woke up refreshed and had completely forgotten Aang's nightmare from last night. That ate the remains of their food for breakfast and then began packing up their stuff. "Look at those clear skies, buddy! Should be some smooth flying," said Aang, affectionately stroking Appa's head.

Katara shook out their food bag to make sure that they were out of food, and the only things that came out of it were some crumbs. Momo quickly gobbled those up. "Well we better smoothly fly to a market, 'cause we're out of food."

"Like always," Kai muttered.

"Guys, wait. This was in my dream. We shouldn't go to the market," announced Sokka abruptly.

"Fine, Sokka, tell us what your dream was," Kai said exasperated.

"Food eats people!" he said making weird hand gestures. Katara shook her head while Kai rolled her eyes at Sokka's antics. "Also Momo could talk. You said some very unkind things."

They ignored Sokka and continued to pack up. They flew to that harbor town that Kai had kept trying to go to. They landed and headed for the market. The three allowed Katara to shop for them as they really had no interest in picking out their food or telling which was ripe or not. But, they did allow Katara to order them around bringing certain foods for her inspection, and slowly their basket began to fill up with vegetables and fruits, much to Sokka's grumbling. But, Katara insisted that it would be better if they hunted for their meat, instead of buying it from a market. Soon they were very bored, and the three just stood around looking at Katara while she meticulously inspected a melon. She kept shaking it to determine if it was ripe or not. The seller of the stand was getting pretty annoyed with all the time Katara was taking up, she said with hands on her hips, "It's good. It's perfect. I'm telling you!"

Shaking the melon, "I don't think I like the sound of that swishing."

"Swishing means its ripe. It's the ripe juices swishing around," the woman insisted.

"I think it's true, Katara. Swishing means its ripe," Aang added hoping that they would get out of this market at some point.

"Just pick a melon and let's go, Katara," Kai cried out, bored out of her mind.

Katara sheepishly put the fruit back in the stall, "I just realized we're out of money."

The woman looked like she was going to yell at Katara ,so the group figured it would be a good idea to move out of the area. The woman viciously took the basket of vegetables Sokka was holding and kicked him in the butt. This prompted the group to move away from the vendor even faster. Rubbing where he was kicked Sokka asked, "Out of food. Out of money. Now what are we supposed to do?"

"You could get a job, smart guy.," Katara snidely replied.

"Oh, I have an idea. I could do the same thing that I did when traveling with Azimi. I could sing for money," Kai said excited, smiling.

"Not going to happen," Sokka immediately said.

"Why not?" Kai whined crestfallen.

"Easy, it would draw too much attention to you. You saw that those Fire Nation soldiers were looking for you and Aang. We don't want to draw more attention to ourselves than necessary."

"Fine," Kai grunted, crossing her arms.

At this point the four were just milling around, trying to think of some idea to get food. Those thoughts were interrupted by an older couple fighting. The woman said, "We shouldn't go out there. Please, the fish can wait. There's going to be a terrible storm."

This sparked Kai's curiosity because as far as she could she it was clear blue skies. A perfect winter day. The man of the couple was thinking the same thing as he replied, "You're crazy. It's a nice day. No clouds, no wind, no nothing, so quit your nagging woman."

"Maybe we should find some shelter?" Aang asked the group hesitantly.

Kai shook her head and Sokka said, "Are you kidding? Shelter from what?"

"Yeah, Aang, you even said that it looks like a nice day for flying earlier," Kai added.

Aang sighed in agreement and turned back to the bickering couple. The woman yelled once again, "My joints say that there's going to be a storm! A bad one."

"Well it's your joints against my brains," the man argued back.

"Then I hope your brain can find someone else to haul the fish, 'cause I ain't coming."

"Then I'll find a new fish hauler and pay him double what you get! How do you like that?"

Sokka interrupted them running towards them and said, "I'll go."

The fisherman pointed to him and said, "You're hired."

The three of them looked at Sokka funny. They weren't expecting him to jump in on this private conversation. Also, for him to do something that would slow the group down as he constantly wanted to stay on schedule. Seeing the three looking at him he said innocently, "What? You said get a job, and he's paying double."

"Double? Who told you that nonsense?" the fisherman said suddenly and Sokka's shoulders fell.

"Well at least he's paying me. Right?"

"Not if you don't get moving now," the man commented. "Start loading those boxes in the boat!"

The three watched as Sokka obediently started to go off and collect what the man had ordered him to get. They watched him silently as he made multiple trips across the pier. But soon their attention was directed up at the sky because the wind was beginning to pick up and they saw grey storm clouds roll in.

Aang started shifting back and forth and Katara kept glancing up at the sky. Finally Aang looked like he couldn't hold what he was thinking inside and blurted out kindly, "Sokka, maybe this isn't such a good idea. Look at the sky."

"I said I was going to do this job. I can't back out because of some bad weather," Sokka replied calmly.

The wife of the fisher was standing off and was looking slightly angry at her husband yelled at him, "The boy with tattoos has some sense. You should listen to him!"

The man paused for a minute and then slightly confused asked, "Boy with tattoos?" he turned around to face the three. "Airbender tattoos. We'll I'll be a hog monkey's uncle. You're the Avatar, ain't you?"

"That's right," Katara said, smiling.

"Well don't be so smiley about it," the man snapped. So Kai, Katara, and Aang all frowned. "The Avatar disappeared for a hundred years! You turned your back on the world!"

Seeing the hurt face on Aang, Kai beat Katara and stormed over the man first, "You have no right to talk to him like that! He has done nothing but help people since I've met him, not thinking about himself but others!"

"Yeah, Aang is the bravest person I know, and like Kai said he has done nothing but save lives," Katara added.

"Who are you tell me this?" the man hotly asked.

"I'm his Apprentice," Kai yelled back.

"And I'm his friend!" Katara cried.

"So I have the right to vouch that he is one of the best people I have ever met! So lay off him!" Kai continued.

"Then the last hundred years of war and suffering are just as much your fault as it is his," the fisher declared.

Aang's eyes widened, and Kai did a double take, "Excuse me, I'm only been alive for the last fifteen years of the war, so how exactly is it my fault?"

The man scoffed, "Well maybe if you had started your duties sooner..."

"No, I couldn't have, I only discovered who I was about a year ago," Kai argued back.

"Well then, it's just his fault then," the fisher cried out.

Katara started up again and yelled, "Well it's not his fault that he disappeared, right, Aang!" she turned back to face Aang, but the two girls noticed that he was backing away from them. Softer she asked, "Aang, what's wrong?"

But, he didn't reply and only airbent his glider open and took off flying. "Aang!" Kai cried to try to get him back.

But the man only yelled out, "That's right! Keep flying!"

Katara turned to glare at the fisher, "You are horrible old man."

She took off running towards Appa and scrambled onto his head. Kai was not far behind. Katara took the reins and ordered, "Appa, yip yip!"

The flying bison took off and started to chase after his master.

* * *

The storm clouds Kai had seen earlier had some truth in them because as they were looking for Aang, it had begun to pour and the winds began to pick up too. This was making their search all the more difficult. But, Katara pointed out a cave a little bit away, and it seemed like the perfect place that either Aang would land or a place to wait out the storm. The two landed Appa and entered the cave. They saw that Aang was kneeling there with his back to them. He said quietly, "I'm sorry for running away."  
"It's okay. That fisherman was way out of line," Katara reassured him.  
"Actually, he wasn't," Aang corrected.  
"What do you mean?" asked Kai, approaching Aang.  
"I don't want to talk about it," the young nomad said his voice cracking.  
Katara walked over so she was kneeling facing him, "It has to do with you dream, doesn't it? Talk to me."  
"Well it's kind of a long story."  
Kai walked over to him and smiled saying, "We've got all the time in the world. It looks like this storm's going to last a while."  
Momo skittered past the three and Appa groaned startling them. Kai pet his wet head affectionately.  
"I'm going to get a little fire going," Katara started to walk away from the group.

Kai and Aang helped Katara out with this by collecting sticks from around the cave. Even Momo pitched in on the were able to get the fire started fairly quickly and that it when Aang started, "I'll never forget the day the monks told me I was the Avatar. I was playing with some other kids just outside the South Wall. I was trying to teach them how to do the air scooter..."

Aang then proceeded to tell the two about his life at the Air Temple. How he was best friends with some of the other kids. It seemed like such a peaceful life. One that Aang deserved. He didn't deserve to be told he was the Avatar so young. He should've had his whole childhood undisturbed. But then again, the air nomads didn't deserve to be attacked. They didn't deserve to be wiped out like they were, because the Fire Nation felt that Aang was a threat to them. No one in the world deserved to have suffered from the war that the Fire Nation caused.

Katara interrupted Aang's story and asked, "So you were upset about that you were the Avatar? Why wouldn't you be excited about it?"  
Before Aang could reply Kai cut in, "Because didn't you hear the reason that they told him he was the Avatar, so he would be prepared for the upcoming war."

"Oh right," Katara said sheepishly.

"Well it was more I didn't know how to feel. All I knew was that after I found out, everything began changing," Aang corrected.

He then continued on telling them about how his friends wouldn't let him play with him anymore, even though he sort of made up the game. Kai was very angry about this. She understood a bit that they were children and they made mistakes but couldn't they see that he was a child too. He hadn't changed at all, he hadn't even started learning the other elements. That was one thing Kai hated about being the Avatar's Apprentice. It wasn't her friends treated her different, but the elders did. They pushed her to master waterbending faster, even though she was clearly having trouble with her home element. They meant well but Kai began feeling more and more pressure from them. It wasn't like anyone else other than her parents and the waterbenders knew about her status though, so she couldn't really rant about it to a random person. Her friends and family were supportive like Gyatso was to Aang. But, only she and Aang could understand what it felt like. But it made her feel better that someone still treated Aang the same.

"I'm liking what I'm hearing about Gyatso so far," Kai said, smiling after hearing that Gyatso made that stuffy monk leave Aang alone.

Aang smiled back, "I do too."

"So, what happened next?" Katara questioned.

All traces of a previous joy was wiped from his face and it turned serious again. "Well just when I was feeling better, something worse happened."

Aang then told the two girls about how the stuffy monk wanted to send Aang away. Away from Gyatso and his whole life. How could they want to do that? They thought Aang would learn better if he was forcibly removed from the closest thing to a family. How would that make him focus more. Without a sense of normality or familiality, he would have adjust all over again. That would take even more time. Just because he was trained as a nomad didn't mean he wasn't human too!

Kai saw Aang was getting angry just telling the story too. Katara tried to relate to him by saying, "That's awful, Aang. I don't know what to say."

He stood up in rage and yelled, "How could they do that to me?! They wanted to take away everything I knew and EVERYBODY I LOVED."

Aang started glowing a little bit at the last part and winds began to pick up around him. Kai began feeling faint and had to put a hand behind on the ground to steady herself. But her attention was focused on the glowing Avatar willing for him to get out of the Avatar State,. Katara had noticed Kai's and her safety was in danger and yelled out, "Whoa, hot cinders and Kai!"

This calmed him down and he walked slowly back to the fire, "I'm sorry I got so mad, especially to you Kai."

"It's fine, you didn't mean to," said Kai, sitting straight up again.

"You have the right to be angry after the monks sent you away like that," Katara added bitterly.

"Well that's not exactly what happened..." Aang trailed off. He began to describe what he was feeling after he overheard the conversation. Everything that Aang said was perfectly reasonable thought Kai. He then told the two about how he ran away because of all the pressure that he was feeling. Kai's heart went out to Aang, because even though he wasn't being sent away, he still left everything he knew. Aang started talking about the storm that he and Appa got into and that was the last thing he remembered until Katara found him in the iceberg.

"You ran away," Katara concluded simply.

"And then the Fire Nation attacked our temple. My people needed me and I wasn't there," Aang said angrily.

"You don't know what would have-" Katara started gently.

"The world needed me and I wasn't there to help," Aang started again.

"Aang..." Kai tried.

"That fisherman was right! I did turn my back on the world!"

"You're being too hard on yourself, even if you did run away. I think it was meant to be. If you had stayed, you would have been killed along with all the other airbenders," reasoned Katara.

"You don't know that," Aang argued again.

"Yes, we do," Kai said firmly. "Do you really you think that you could have defeated all those firebenders,especially since they had Sozin's comet on their side?"

"Well maybe if I used the Avatar State-" Aang started.

"But I don't think the Avatar's State is invincible," Kai reasoned. "Then what would be without you."

Katara said, "Yeah, Aang, maybe it was meant to be this way. The world needs you _now_. You give people hope."

But Aang didn't seem cheered up yet, so Kai sighed, "If it makes you feel anybetter the fisherman said something that made me think of one of my regrets."

"What?" Aang asked. "But you defended yourself against the man."

"Well, you know how the man said I should've started my duties as the Avatar's Apprentice sooner, and I said that I only found out a year ago. Well that part is true but I might've found out sooner," said Kai

"What do you mean?" asked Katara.

"Well it all started when I was about 9..."

* * *

_It was night time in the South Eastern Water Tribe. The village was quiet because families tended to keep to themselves during the dark hours. Only an occasional cry of a baby or plates crashing because of an overzealous child could be hear in the main village road. A house down the road a bit contained a small but close knit family of three. The youngest, the child aged 9, was getting ready for bed. The full moon shone outside her window of her small bedroom. She sat on the edge of her bed and was undoing her wraps around her skinny arms. She finished taking her left one off and she set it carefully at the end of her bed. The girl looked down and saw the bright red scar that she had gotten only a mere year ago. It still made the normally peaceful child angry. What had she done to deserve it? she thought angrily. She threw her arms up and down and plopped back onto her bed in a huff. But she heard a splash coming from her right where her bedside table. She must have accidently knocked over her bedside table in her anger and spilt the cup of water on the floor. Opening her eyes, she was surprised to see that everything was completely in its place. The only thing that had changed was that the cup had slightly less water in it and a water stain had formed around it. She was very confused at what happened. So curiously, she repeated her actions of a minute ago ,but this time she kept her focus on the cup of water. She thought about her anger towards the Fire Nation and raised her arms and she saw that some of the water rose with it. The girl immediately dropped her arms and let out a silent shriek. She scrambled back to her bed and hugged her knees, tears were threatening to pour out. What had just happened? She moved her arms and the water moved with her. This had never happened before, and what was wrong with her? Was she some sort of freak? Then her mother's voice entered her mind and she remembered a bedtime story from long ago. The character in the story could move water with their hands. The character was waterbending. She had waterbent. _

* * *

_The same child was now ten years old and was currently at school. It was a small class incorporated of children around her age. The tribe thought it was important that the children were educated and learn about the world even if they would never leave this island. The girl, Kai, sat in the middle of the classroom with her best friend, Jiang in front of her, who she often passed notes to during class. Her other best friend , Chao, was sitting with the newer kid, the one who had come from the Earth Kingdom named Shen. He had come with his two parents, and his mother was originally from their tribe. She didn't know a lot about this kid because he mainly hung out with either his family or Chao. Maybe she would talk to him after class. _  
_The class was learning about their own culture today. It was something that always sparked the curiosity of Jiang, so when they learned about it class they didn't pass their usual notes. "Now the South Eastern Water Tribe used to have many people that could control the element of water. These people were called waterbenders," the teacher droned on. _

_As she heard the last word, her heartbeat started to race and she shifted nervously in her seat. It had been around a year since that one night when she had discovered her ability. No one knew about this night. She didn't plan on telling anyone soon either because honestly it scared her. What if people started treating her differently if they found out. She couldn't let her whole life change because of this one abillity. What if her life changed for the worse. No, she would keep this secret to herself. _

"_The last waterbender of the Southeastern Water Tribe lived here 70 years ago when the Fire Nation was still conducting raids on our island. Since that has happened, the Fire Nation has generally left our tribe alone. When we lost this great part of our culture, we vowed that we wouldn't forget about it even if there were no benders in the tribe," the teacher continued. Then a bell rang signaling the end of class and the start of lunch. _

_Kai felt that it would better that no one knew that she was a waterbender because then the Fire Nation would still leave them alone. Pushing those nervous thoughts about her ability out of head, she ran out of the classroom and yelled happily, "Hey Chao, Shen! Wait up!"_

* * *

_It was now a month until the girl's twelfth birthday. Her parents kept gushing over how big she was getting and how old they felt. These were the good times when her parents would always , the secret of waterbending was always lingering inside Kai. It felt dangerous inside her. She knew that it was getting harder and harder to hide, such as during the snowball fights she could always make snowballs faster than all her friends. They just shrugged it off as a natural talent of Kai's, but only she knew that it was probably because of her waterbending. Finally, after months of debating, she couldn't hide this talent inside her anymore. She kept reminding herself that maybe this was a good thing or her parents wouldn't share this with anyone else and would also think it's good to hide this. It wasn't that she wanted to shout that she had this ability to the entire world but she felt she needed someone to talk about it with. _

_She took a deep breathe a braced herself as she climbed down the ladder with the cup of water. She walked into the room where both her parents were sitting and her mother was fixing some clothes and her father was reading a scroll. He looked up from his reading and asked, "Hi, sweetheart, what are you doing?"_

"_Umm, there's actually something I wanted to talk to you too about," she hesitantly said. _

"_What is it?" he asked and her mother looked up from sewing. _

"_Well, this all started about a year and half ago, and I found out something and ummm.. well it sort of scared me, so I tried to push it out of my mind. But it didn't go away and it's started to come back and I don't know what to do about it," she paused for a minute and saw the concerned faces on her parents and gulped. "Maybe I should just show you..." _

_The girl placed the cup of water on a nearby table, and then repeated the actions that she did on her first time bending the water. She picked the water up, held it in the air for a minute, and then dropped it back into the cup. She looked up and saw her parents staring at her with wide eyes._

* * *

"_Please settle down," Chao's father, the chief, yelled out to the loud crowd. "We will never get this sorted out if we aren't calm and respectful."_  
_The crowd started to calm down, so one person could yell out, "What do you mean that there was a waterbender found in our village?! We haven't had one since 70 years ago when the Fire Nation took him away."_  
_Kai's eyes were fixated straight on the ground as though the soil was more interesting than the discussion going on. She didn't mean to cause this. She didn't want to make this uproar in the village. Chao's father spoke again, "Although I do not know how, last night young Kai," gesturing to her who was standing with her parents in the front of the crowd, who shyed away from the attention even more and stared even further into the ground. "And her parents came to me and told me that Kai had discovered her ability to waterbend. She even showed me to prove it was true."_  
"_Does this mean that the Fire Nation will attack us again?" another voice shouted out and murmurs agreement surrounded him. "Is her presence in our tribe a danger to everybody else?"_

_Kai flinched at the last question as she obviously didn't want to bring any harm to her town and friends. Maybe she really should leave like that person suggested. But Chao's father cried out yet again, "People, please listen to yourselves. You are talking about throwing a girl who is almost 12 out onto the streets just because she has discovered and come forward with an ability that could potentially help us in the long run. Consider that for a minute." The crowd quieted down and a silence overtook the village. "Now then, the Spirits have blessed us by giving Kai the ability to bend water something that we as a village said we would not forget this gift when the Fire Nation took it away from us," another pregnant pause. "That why I believe that the Spirits have given us more than one blessing."_

_Whisperings took over the village. Jiang's mother yelled out, "Do you mean that there may be more waterbenders?"_

"_Nothing is for sure, but it seems probable that there may be more benders. Anything may be possible. That is why the elders and I have decided to test anyone who was born after that period that the last waterbenders were taken. Testing will begin..."_

* * *

_The girl now a newly twelve year old was waiting outside a hut, waiting for her friend to come out. The door suddenly opened and closed semi quietly. The other girl, Jiang, came out and faced Kai with a straight face. A pause passed between the two girls. "I'm a waterbender," Jiang squealed. _  
_Kai rushed forward and hugged her best friend. "That makes all of us, Chao, Shen, you, and me."_  
"_I was so nervous because I thought I would be the odd one out of our group, but I did it! Can you believe it, I can waterbend!"_  
"_I'm so glad that you're happy," Kai replied. _  
"_I really am. Now let's go find those boys and tell them," Jiang announced. _  
"_Yeah, I'm sure they'll be happy to know that you're a waterbender too," Kai said leading Jiang towards the forest where there usually hideout was. _

"_Well, I'm sure that Shen will be glad to see you," said Jiang mischievously. Kai blushed in response thinking of the new boy that she had befriended two years years ago, that she had gotten particularly close to. "I knew it, you so like him!"_

"_Shut up," Kai hissed. "Do you want him to hear you?"_

_Jiang only threw her head back and laughed running away from Kai, making her chase after her. _

___  
_The girl was now fourteen. A lot had changed in those two years. Her little crush on Shen had grown and she had recently learned it was a two way relationship. That day she felt like she was on top of the world. She had also learnt that she might be able to learn waterbending properly now because her tribe was in communication with the Northern Water Tribe. That would be better instead of Kai and her friends trying to figure this out on their own. But right now, she couldn't think of that. She was walking beside one of her best friends Chao, who was much taller than Kai as he had recently had a growth spurt. It looked like quite an abnormal pair walking side by side. But what was even more strange is that they were walking behind a group of elderly people. Nonetheless, they walked in silence through the forest . They arrived at the rotting wood hut, that Kai had only visited once, when her grandfather had died because the ceremony for the family took place at the spiritual center. The two children were confused as why they were coming here though. All the two had been told was that the elders wanted to see them, and they didn't question that._  
_They entered the simple hut and the eldest woman took the task of lighting the sacred , the eldest male, said, "Take a seat, Chao, Kai." The two followed the order and sat cross legged on the ground. "You must be wondering why you two are here. You are in no trouble, don't worry. Instead we are curious about something. Do you two know the legend of the Avatar's Apprentice, you learned that in school, right?"The two nodded simultaneously. "Excellent, so let's get right to it. We always thought it was rather strange about the findings of all the waterbenders. Although we never questioned the Spirit's decision to give all of you this gift. We were always curious why. So when the we started contacting the Northern Water Tribe, we asked them this same question. They informed us that the first Avatar's Apprentice for the Air Nomad Avatar had passed away and they had yet to discover the next one. See this happened fourteen years ago. Since the Southern Water Tribe doesn't have any waterbenders, they thought that there was a high probability that the Avatar's Apprentice was here in this tribe. So we began observing the waterbenders for tell tale signs of one being the Avatar's Apprentice. Unfortunately this was harder than we thought and we decided that it would be better to narrow down the selection first before we tested people for being the Avatar's Apprentice, since we decided it wouldn't be a good thing for the Avatar's Apprentice to be known until absolutely necessary. But we began to narrow down the selection to eventually two, you two."_  
_Chao and Kai were shocked. Kai was the first to speak, "You really think that I could be the Avatar's Apprentice?! But I struggle so much with waterbending isn't the Avatar's Apprentice supposed to be the second most powerful person in the world?"_  
"_Yes, Kai, we think it could be either one of you." Shing began to explain, "Chao ,you have so much raw talent in waterbending. You seem to master things much faster than others and have excellent leadership skills, both are qualities of an Avatar's Apprentice. Kai on the other hand, all though she does not master waterbending as fast, which may only be a temporary block, has many qualities shared of both the Air Nomads and Water Tribe. Kai, you are fiercely protective of people who are close to you and compassionate. But at the same time you are fun loving and care for everybody especially for people or creatures younger or smaller than you. There is also a chance that it could be either, but you two seem the most likely. That is why we have one final test," Shing took out a small blue bag tied off by a small piece of rope. "Haloa, fetched this from the Eastern Air Temple about a month ago, and it is sand that determines if someone is an airbender. So if either one of you is the Avatar's Apprentice it should swirl when placed in front of you. So if I may, Chao please come forward."_  
_Chao shakily got to a standing position and stepped forward. Shing gestured for him to sit in front of him. Shing untied the bag, and dipped his hand into it. Pulling a closed fist out of it, he dropped the sand in front of Chao. It fluttered a tiny bit, but did nothing exciting. "Well, Chao, I believe that you may have some Air Nomad blood in you, but I do not believe you are the Avatar's Apprentice," Shing declared. _

_Chao let out an involuntary sigh of relief and wiped his sweaty on his hands on his pants. He moved back to where Kai was. Shing swept the sand cleanly back into his fist and then motioned for Kai to come forward. She almost stumbled getting up but she caught herself and smoothly walked towards Shing. Once there, she adopted a similar position, kneeling, like Chao had been. Shing carefully placed the sand in front of Kai, and at first it did nothing, which made Kai's heart beat a little slower. But then it surprised everyone in the room and the sand began picking up speed and circling into a small tornado. With every turn it got faster and taller, until it reached as high as Kai's head. When that happened, it suddenly stopped and fell to the ground limp. A pause happened until Shing spoke up and motioned for Kai to stand. "It's a pleasure to know you, Apprentice Kai," and he bowed slightly to show his respect. She looked around her and saw that everybody else, including Shen, slightly delayed but nonetheless, was bowing at her. Kai was confused, why were they doing this. But then Shing's words hit her. She was the Avatar's Apprentice._

* * *

"Kai, you shouldn't be ashamed that you hid your waterbending. You were nine when you discovered it and it scared you," Katara tried to comfort her.

"Yeah Kai, you shouldn't feel guilty about that," Aang added.

"I didn't want your sympathy when I told you this story although it can be nice, that wasn't the point. No matter what anyone saysI'm going to want to change my actions from when I was nine. But I can't because everybody has regrets, just like yours," Kai explained, hugging her knees.

"You know it's ok to let people in sometimes Kai, maybe talking about it helped you like it helped me," Aang said.

Kai only shrugged her shoulders. That's when a woman came running into the cave yelling, "Help! Oh, please help!"

Katara rushed over to the woman and brought her over towards the fire, "It's 're safe."

"But my husband isn't."

"What do you mean? Where's Sokka?" Katara asked worry evident in her voice.

"They haven't returned! They should have been back by now! And the storm is becoming a typhoon! They're caught out at sea!" the fisherman's wife replied.

"I'm going to find him." Aang declared.

"I'm going with you," added Katara.

"You two aren't leaving me behind, so I'm going too," Kai finished.

"I'm staying here," the woman informed them.

They quickly readied themselves to go out into the storm. Right before they left, Aang turned back to the woman and said, "We'll be back soon. I promise."

They mounted Appa and took flight. Wind and rain were whipping all around them as soon as they left the cave's shelter. It begun to prove to be a bit difficult to see in this weather. But they persevered, eager to find Sokka. Because of the poor visibility, Aang guided Appa closer to the water so they could spot the fishing boat better. "Where are they?" Katara yelled out to Aang, desperate to find her brother.

Aang didn't respond as his attention was now directed on the upcoming wave coming towards them. "Come on, Appa," he cried to make his companion fly higher to avoid the wave. But the wave was climbing higher as Appa was. Aang figured out that they weren't going to make it over the top of the wave. Kai just stared wide-eyed at the incoming wave, realizing they were about to crash into it. Aang did some last minute thinking though and used his staff to create a hole to fly through the wave.

After they had cleared the wave, Kai yelled and pointed out into the distance, "The boat!"

Aang directed Appa towards where Kai was pointing and they were able to fly over there fairly quickly. Hovering above the boat, Aang jumped off Appa's head and prevented a wooden post from falling on Sokka and the fisherman by splitting it into two pieces. He swiftly attached a rope to the two people on the ship and jumped back onto Appa, dragging Sokka and the fisherman with him. They landed safely in Appa's saddle. Kai smiled and started to turn back to the pair to say something smart, when her face turned to horror as she saw the size of the wave coming up behind them. It was too big for Aang to plow through, so all of them got swept under the water. Kai braced herself but squeezing her eyes shut and holding onto the saddle for her life. That is when her whole world went black.

* * *

Kai had expected to be anywhere but Appa's saddle when she woke. She thought maybe she would be lost at sea, on some random ship or island, or even the spirit world, but instead she was on Appa's saddle. She felt two pairs of hands holding onto her arms, and she opened her eyes to see that Katara and Sokka were on either side of her and it was their hands on her. They were going at an almost vertical angle up so she saw a loop on Appa's saddle and reached out and grabbed it. Even when she was fairly sure that she was secure, the hands held onto her. Only when they were going horizontal again did they let go. Kai sat up clutching her head, "What happened?"

"Aang got us out of the storm," Katara calmly replied.

"Yeah, but he had to get his glow on so I'm guessing that's why you blacked out," Sokka explained.

"Sorry," said Aang sheepishly from up front.

"I really appreciate that you got us out of that storm but can you please not go into the Avatar State so often. I can't count all the times I've gone under in the last month."

The three kids laughed and said nothing else. They all flew back to the cave without any problems because the storm had calm down. Once they landed, the fisherman's wife rushed forward and hugged her husband saying, "Oh, you're alive. You owe this boy an apology and the girl too!"

"He doesn't have to apologize," immediately replied Aang.

The fisherman turned towards them and offered, "Why not instead of an apology, I give them each a free fish and we call it even?"

"Actually, I don't eat meat," Aang replied.

"Fish ain't meat!"

"I'll take his fish too if he doesn't want his," Kai said grinning. "What? I love fish."

Sokka walked up to the man and asked, "Seriously, you're still going to pay me, right?"

The fisherman just handed Sokka a fish, which made him make a disgusted face. Kai seeing this, snatched the fish from Sokka's hand and said, "Well if nobody wants the fish I'll take it. Did you know that I'm one of the fastest people in my tribe who can gut a fish?"

Sokka just gave her a more disgusted face and she teased him by sticking the dead fish in his face, making him run away from Kai and further into the cave. She chased him all over with the dead fish, with Katara and Aang watching and laughing at them. This continued on until Momo joined in on the chase and fetch the fish for himself. This prompted Kai to chase him all over the cave as Sokka now laughed.

* * *

**Well thank you for reading the latest chapter of the Avatar's Apprentice. If you liked this please review or tell me just something liked in this chapter. I have most of the next chapter written and will be out soon, but more reviews motivate me to write even faster. **


	10. Ch 10: The Blue Spirit

**AN: Hi, guys, it's the musical bender here with the latest chapter. Before you start this chapter, I just wanted to tell you that Thursday I start my of my junior year of High School. Up side: I'm one more year closer to graduating. Down side: I already know that this year will be a lot of work, especially in the fall. So I won't be able to update as often. I'm aiming to post a chapter once every two weeks, but if I'm going to be gone for a while, I'll let you know. As always please review and a big thanks to KnittedSweater who beta read this chapter. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: the Last Airbender**

* * *

The Blue Spirit

After they had run away from the large storm, Sokka soon became sick. Katara guessed that it was because of the overexposure he experienced during the storm. They had decided to wait it out, though. Katara had reassured the other two that this often happened in the South Pole and it would go away in a day.

But this turned out not to be the thing, and Sokka did not indeed get better after a day. His condition continued to deteriorate actually. Soon, he had a high fever and was talking nonsense. Katara and Kai tried to cool him down by placing a cool cloth on his forehead. He refused the ice bath that they had offered, because he claimed that his was cold. It was even getting increasingly hard for them to keep the cloth on his forehead, because of this.

They decided to land in the ruins of an old city, so Sokka could rest and they could possibly seek medicine for him. Katara was fussing over her brother constantly replacing the wet cloth on his forehead. She kept saying, "This should bring your fever down."

"You know what I love most about Appa," Sokka started again, clearly not with it. "His sense of humor."

"That's nice. I'll tell him," she replied kindly. But then she looked over at Kai uncertain. Kai shrugged her shoulders, knowing that there was nothing that the two could do.

Appa then growled, startling Kai, and Sokka laughed saying, "Classic Appa."

Aang then took the moment to return after searching for some remedies like tea for Sokka. Folding up his glider he asked concerned, "How's Sokka doing?"

"Not so good, being out in that storm really did a number on him," Katara commented.

"I couldn't find any ginger root for the tea. But I found a map. There's a herbalist institute on the top of that mountain," pointing to the mountain in front of them. "We could probably find a cure for Sokka there."

"That's great Aang, but Sokka's in no condition to travel right now," said Kai.

"I'm sure he'll be better by tomorrow," added Katara, before she started into a coughing fit.

"Not you too," Aang said exasperated.

"She probably caught it from being around Sokka too much."

"Relax," she told the other two. "It was just a little cough. I'm fi-" but then she started into another fit.

"That's how Sokka started yesterday," Aang explained. "Now look at him. He thinks he's an earthbender."

"Take that, you rock," Sokka cried, flailing his arms. Kai rushed over, tucking his arms back into his sleeping bag, so he wouldn't hurt himself.

"A few more hours and you'll be talking nonsense too. I'm going to find some medicine. Kai, you stay with the other two and look after them," Aang said.

"Uh uh, no way am I letting you go out there alone," Kai said determined, pointing to the brewing storm. "Especially not on your glider. I'll come with you."

"No, you need to stay here and help the other two," he argued.

"It'll be no use to them if you get into trouble and you take longer just because you're alone. Just let me do this, Aang," giving him a pleading look.

"Fine," he agreed. "We'll run then. Keep an eye on them guys," talking to his two animal companions.

Aang jumped out of the ruins they were currently in and landed on the ground below. Kai quickly slide down the path that lead there. "It'll take too long to teach you how to use airbending to speed up running and besides it takes a while to build up stamina to do that for a long time. Just get on my back."

She mounted him piggyback style, not crushing him because she was smaller than most girls her age. He took off running, going at a speed that Kai couldn't even dream about. She couldn't believe that some day that she would be able to do this.

They ran down hills and on narrow curving mountain paths. The two eventually ran up one final hill and reached the greenhouse that the map had labeled as the herbalists' institute. Aang wasted no time with him letting Kai off his back and then rushed into the house. He was clearly concerned about his friends' health. He ran up to the only person in the building, an old woman, and rushed saying, "Hello, I'm sorry to barge in like this, but I need some medicine for my friends, they have fevers and they were coughing-"

"Settle down, Aang," Kai said, coming up behind him placing a hand on his shoulder. "She'll never understand you if you talk so fast." She then turned and respectfully bowed to the older woman. "What he was trying to say is that we are travelers and our friends are sick and we heard about this institute and we were wondering if you could help them. Like Aang said, they have high fevers, coughs, and one of them is delusional."

"Well aren't you a polite young lady," the old woman said, smiling. "Now don't you and you, young man, worry. You'll friends will be fine. I've been up for forty years, you know, used to be others, but they left years ago. Now it's just me and Miyuki," petting her cat.

"That's nice," Aang commented after Kai elbowed him in the stomach to get him to say something.

"Wounded Earth Kingdom troops still come by now and again, brave boys, and thanks to my remedies they always leave in better shape than when they arrive," the herbalist explained.

"That's very kind of you to do," said Kai politely. Secretly she was just this polite so that she would hurry up with making their medicine for Katara and Sokka. Aang didn't understand what she was trying to do and blurted out, "Are you almost done?"

"Aang," Kai hissed through her teeth. He gave her an innocent 'what did I do look' but Kai only rolled her eyes when she saw it. "What my, uuuh, brother," Aang giggled at this and she sent him a glare to be quiet, "was trying to say is that our friends are really sick and we really need to get back them. See we're orphans, and we don't have much money for medicine."

"Oh, you poor dears," the woman comforted the two. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"You can give us our medicine," Aang pipped in.

"Ah yes, I just need to add one last ingredient ," the woman said, and began looking around for it.

"Why did you come up with that whole lie about us being orphans and siblings?" Aang whispered to Kai.

"I thought it would make her work faster if she thought we had some sob story behind us. Old people eat that up," she told Aang. "Besides I thought it would make her less curious about why four unrelated kids are traveling together."

"Nice one," Aang complemented, smirking.

They both looked up to see the older woman still waddling around the house looking for the last ingredient for the cure. Aang soon got bored and rested his arm and head on the table. Kai began inspecting her nails meticulously to pass the time. "Anh! Plum blossom," the woman finally said, picking a leaf from a plant. Aang darted forward to grab the bowl, "Finally! Thanks for all your help! Ow!" he yelled as the woman smacked his hands with a wooden spoon.

"What do you think you are doing?" the herbalist cried out.

"He was just taking the cure to our friends," Kai calmly explained. "Why did you hit him?"

Laughing, she replied, "Silly kids, this isn't the cure! It's Miyuki's dinner," setting the bowl down for the cat and cooed, "Plum blossom is her favorite."

"So you mean the entire time we were waiting, you weren't making the cure for our friends!" exclaimed Kai. The woman nodded. "But what about our friends! They are definitely more important than your stupid cat!"

"I beg you pardon, Miyuki is very important," cuddling her cat protectively.

"Then what about our friends?" asked Aang.

"Don't you worry. All they need are some frozen wood frogs. There are plenty down in the valley swamp," the herbalist answered.

"What are we supposed to do with frozen frogs?" asked Kai confused.

The woman glared at her before saying, "Why, suck on them, of course!"

"Suck on them?" Aang incredulously asked, both Kai and him were sporting exactly the same dumbfounded faces.

"The frog skin excretes a substance that will cure your friends. Be sure to get plenty because once those little critters thaw out, they're useless!"

"You're insane, aren't you?" Aang asked plainly.

"That's right!" the woman said crazily. Well, don't just stand there all day, go!" the woman yelled spewing junk all over Kai's face, who immediately wiped it off.

After this, the two ran out of the hut. The storm had take a turn for the worse and if Kai's hair wasn't in a ponytail, it would have been blocking her sight of vision. Aang was wiping his face with his sleeve to get the raindrops out of his eye. "C'mon the swamp is this way," he said, pointing down the hill.

Out of nowhere arrows flew in the air and hit both Kai's and Aang's pant legs, pinning them to the ground. More were coming their way, but Aang airbent a shield to block the new ones from coming and hitting them. Unhooking the arrow from his pant leg, he looked up into the sky and called, "Uhh...I think you dropped this."

Kai successfully worked on getting the arrows out of her pants. Another wave of arrows were coming towards them, Kai grabbed Aang's arm and pulled him out of harm's way yelling to him, "It's an ambush!"

They tried running back to the gate where they came from, but it was blocked archers. Aang and Kai quickly turned around, leading them behind the institute, "Do you trust me?" Aang yelled to Kai.

But he didn't wait for her to respond before pulling with him over the cliff's edge into the forest below. The duo painfully crashed into tree after tree. Their attackers were close on their tails though, and they were coming dangerously close to them. They were using their weapons to slow their fall. Kai was screaming the whole time down, and before they came painfully close to the ground before Aang bent an air cushion to ease their fall.

After landing on her feet pain rushed through her ankle, adrenaline urged Kai to get up and they continued to run out of the forest. There they saw that they had entered the swamp the old woman had told them about. Aang allowed for his hand to skim the muddy ground and search exclaiming, "A frog!"

But it was knocked out of his hand by an incoming arrow. He yelped but this didn't stop his search for the frogs. Kai, who had run ahead of Aang, looked behind and saw that he was still wasting time collecting these frogs. She ran back to the front of a fallen log, and intended to forcefully pick him up and carry him out of the swamp if he didn't pick up the pace.

As Aang was momentarily distracted looking for the frogs, the archers took this opportunity to pin his arm to the log behind him. "Aang," she cried out, trying to help him unpin his arm from the log, but soon more arrows come in, grazing Kai's right arm on the way.

She knelt down, trying to conceal her pain, but her arm was now bleeding. Aang had noticed this and was able to bend a ice shield in front of them. It proved to be ineffective though as it broke only moments after it was created.

More arrows came to pin both Aang's free arm and Kai's good arm. Then a net was launched over Aang, and his eyes shone in terror. One last arrow was aimed at his head, and effectively knocked him out. Kai looked back up from her position had the energy to fight back with the injuries she has sustained during the chase. She was a sitting turtleduck for her attackers to knock her out.

* * *

Kai woke up with another bad headache. It was if she was starting to get used to waking up like this because of all the times it had happened this month. But it wasn't like she had ever really been knocked unconscious by someone before, well unless if you count that one time with Shen, but that was a story for another day.

All Kai knew now was that she was in a Fire Nation prison, according to the flag on the wall, was chained to two pillars and her feet to the ground and that Aang was in the exact same position as her. He was still unconscious though and she couldn't think of anything to wake him up. It was not like loud noises would do that, and she obviously couldn't pour any water on his face. So she was stuck alone for right now.

Luckily, whoever had captured them didn't want her to bled to death, just yet, as her arm where the arrow had hit her, was wrapped thinly but very tightly in a white red cloth. Her ankle was still bothering her though since the jump. Kai didn't think that it was broken though because she could still walk, and run fairly well, after that fall, and she could move her foot slightly around. Trying again, she pulled on the chains that held her arms out. But, they would not break.

By this point, she heard Aang start to groan next to her, so she assumed that he was waking up. "Aang, wake up, wake up," she said, just to make sure that he wouldn't fall back into the dark. She needed him to be up and alert if they had any chance of escaping.

"What?" he asked dazed and confused.

"We're in a Fire Nation prison, Aang. We got caught by those archers," she said trying to catch him up to speed.

"Kai, you're here too! This is exactly why to come. I don't want you getting into this situation because of me," he exclaimed.

"Considering our combined bad luck, I probably would've managed to get myself caught at one point or another," she reasoned.

"So...what's the plan?" Aang asked her curiously.

"I don't know," she said, directing her gaze away from him. She didn't want to admit out loud that neither of them had any sort of plan of how to get out of here.

But then, the door of the cell opened and a man dressed in Fire Nation military garb. walked into the cell. She had a flashback to the Fire Temple and how Sokka had later told her that the Fire Nation man, Zhao, that had should up there looked remarkably like a monkey. This must either be his twin or him because he looked just like that.

He started to walk over towards Aang and said, "So this is the great Avatar. Master of all the elements. I don't know how you managed to elude the Fire Nation for a hundred years, but your little game of hide and seek is over."

"I've never hidden from you!" Aang replied angrily. "Untie me and I'll fight you right now!"

"Uh no," Zhao started up again. "Tell me, how does it feel to be the only airbender left? Do you miss your people?" he mocked Aang. "Don't worry, you won't be killed like they were. See, if you die you will just be reborn and the Fire Nation would have to start searching all over again. So I'll keep you alive, but just barely," he then started walking over towards Kai how was chained so she was to the left of Aang. "But for your Apprentice, I can't say the same thing."

Kai glared fiercely up at the man, who now stood directly in front of her. "See without you, her being reborn will accomplish nothing as she will not be able to learn airbending and will just be a weak waterbender. We've proved that we can easily overpower waterbenders, isn't that right, girl?"

She knew that he was baiting her using her attack on her village to mock her, but she couldn't contain her anger like that. "You're wrong, the waterbenders from my tribe were able to escape one of your ships without any formal training! Water always puts out flames," she said with a certain glint of pride in her eye.

"By a stroke of luck, those waterbenders were not able to escape, but what about the rest of the people of your pathetic tribe? Do you know what happened to them?" he asked her. and began to circle her again. "See as an Admiral, I have access to all sorts of information including a report on the raid of the South Eastern Water Tribe," taking a piece of parchment and showing it to without her being able to read anything other than the words South Eastern Water Tribe before he circled one last time behind her.

She heard him crumble up the piece of parchment. "But I'll leave that information with you. Not like you'll ever be able to read it or find it out. But, it will always be with you, inches away from you grasp." He leaned down a slipped it into the sleeve of her shirt and whispered to her, "You'll be mine before we reach the Fire Nation my dear."

She shuddered and Kai couldn't help but let out a small whimper. Satisfied with his work, Zhao stepped away from her and began to walk to the door. Kai was in such an overload of emotions, anger, guilt, curiosity, fear, that she couldn't think of an angry retort that fit the encounter. Aang, luckily, did something that would count as revenge for both of them. He was able to blow Zhao right into the wall. The admiral growled at him while Kai merely smirked. "Blow all the winds you want, but your situation if futile. There is no escaping this fortress, and no one is coming to rescue you."

The door slammed loudly behind him, and as soon as that happened and Aang asked concerned, "Kai, are you ok?"

She took a deep breathe to try to calm herself before responding, "Yeah, Aang , I'll be fine. I just really want to leave this place."

"I'm trying Kai, I really am," Aang claimed.

"No, it's just as much my fault, that we're in this situation. Let's just try to think of a way to get out of here," she said weakly.

A silence overtook the space that they were in. The room proved to be pretty soundproof and Kai couldn't hear anything that was on the outside world. Unfortunately, like the Admiral said, there wasn't any way to get out of the prison and with Katara and Sokka being sick, they wouldn't be receiving any outside help. She hated to admit that this man was right. Especially, because he disgusted her so much.

She still didn't understand his strange obsession with her and how much he enjoyed mocking and teasing the two so much. I mean it was just cruel to bring up Aang's past and the genocide his nation committed on Aang's people.

Also, she was ashamed she fell for the bait with her people and how he so easily could press her buttons. That piece of parchment in loose sleeve felt heavier than it should be, as if the words of it was weighing it down. All she wanted to know was where her parents were. Since he didn't say they were dead out right, then that probably meant they were just in a Fire Nation prison or something not terrible. Maybe they even escaped. Zhao probably was just trying to make her think they were dead, because if they were then he would've said it to crush her spirits.

Aang on the other hand was still trying to escape. He was twisting back and forth trying to break free. But he had to stop because he was breathing so hard. "It's not working," she heard him whisper out loud.

Then, a few small sounds that sounded like croaks came from her right and Kai heard Aang cry out, "What? No! Don't leave frogs! My friends are sick and they need you! Please go back to being frozen!"

"Aang, we're in a Fire Nation prison, not to rain on your parade, but we have a bit more important things to worry about," Kai reasoned.

"Oh right," Aang said sadly.

Though as Kai had noticed before the doors were quite soundproof, quite, but not completely. So it was quite possible to hear some noise outside their cell. That was exactly what happened next.

The two's attention was drawn to the door as they heard the clank of metal on metal. Kai tried to look at Aang and silently ask him what was going on, but Aang didn't see her at all as he was looking at the door. This door was now starting to open, and they both saw a person dressed all in black with a scary looking demon blue mask on. Then all of a sudden the person, who Kai thought was a man, brandished his sword into two twin ones and started to run towards Aang, with them out. Aang started to scream, while Kai could not produce this sound and simply closed her eyes and looked away, not wanting to see her friend be murdered.

Even though they had survived being attacked by crazy archers, locked up in a Fire Nation prison, taunted, Aang was going to die by some crazed masked man. Why couldn't the spirits just let Aang live? What did he do to deserve all this? Where was all that destiny crap now? Aang, one of her best friends, the optimistic of the group, the one who could make anyone smile, was about to get sliced open.

But no guttural sounds came from her right, and Aang had actually stopped screaming. So hesitantly, she looked over and saw that the man had not killed or even hurt Aang, but rather freed him. Aang was looking at the man in shock, but he simply moved over to Kai and freed her from her bonds. Kai just stood there. This man had turned from their killer to savoir in less than a minute. Somehow he knew that Kai and Aang were in here, and was sent to rescue them. Maybe she was wrong about the spirits and they were looking over the two. She couldn't help but smile at the thought of the two of them escaping here alive. Aang must have been thinking the same thing because, he came over and hugged Kai strongly, and whispered happily, "We're going to be ok."

"Sure are, I won't let anything happen to you," she whispered back.

They broke from their hug and Aang looked back over at the man who was now standing at the door and questioned, "Who are you? What's going on? Are you rescuing us?"

But the man only opened the door and motioned for the two to follow him and Aang finished, "I'll take that as a yes."

The duo followed the person out of the cell and down the hall. She gladly saw guards tied up and gaged out of the way, helpless to stopping Kai or Aang from escaping. The two walked side by side until Aang heard frogs and he ducked into a nearby room and saw that his frogs he had collected were already thawing out. He cried, "My frogs! Come back! And stop thawing out!"

Kai grabbed him protesting by the back of his shirt saying, "We can get more later, come on."

They expertly snuck through the fortress dodging passing guards left and right. They encountered no trouble and Kai seriously thought they would make it out. That was such a good feeling. Back in the prison cell she had felt so helpless but now, she would show Zhao that she was as powerful as she was.

They were currently in the sewer system of the prison so water gently splashed her feet as she and the others creeped by. Kai took this time to refill her water skin that she assumed had been emptied on her arrival to the fortress. At least it wasn't confiscated.

The three jumped out of the grate above them and ran across the courtyard to the wall. Their rescuers obviously came prepared as he threw a rope securely up the wall that hooked onto the top of it. Then, as quietly as they could began scaling the wall. It was a bit difficult for Kai because she was not as strong as she assumed the two other boys were. She really did need to start working out if she had any chance of evading the Fire Nation.

But then a bell rang out, signaling something and Kai hoped it wasn't what she thought,. Unfortunately, it was a guard on the wall yelled, pointing to the group. "There on the wall!"

The rope was cut and the Avatar and Apprentice screamed as they started to fall down, but Aang airbent a cushion for them to land softly on. This sudden landing only intensified the pain in her ankle. She saw the other two get into a fighting stance, so Kai ignored the pain and did the same.

They saw more guards approaching them so the three made a break for the gates and Aang ran past them yelling, "Stay close to me."

Kai struggled to catch up to him, but blew a gust of air behind her propelling herself forward to stay up to the pace. Aang airbent the guards coming at the two from the gate out of the way, and they were just about to enter this doorway when they saw their rescuer far behind. Aang tried to push Kai through the door, but he haltered because he saw the masked man being surrounded by guards. This pause gave a guard the perfect time to attack them and Kai barely yelled, "Watch out," ducking the incoming spear.

But Aang managed to catch hold of it and break off the point of it. He started running towards the masked person so Kai follows him. Aang managed to airbend half of the guards around the man away while Kai took care of the other half. He then catapulted the person up on top of the wall and did the same for Kai

.The rescuer and Kai stood back to back, facing off the soldiers that surrounded them. Kai heard a peculiar sound above her and she momentarily looked up and saw Aang coming up behind them using the spear he picked up from the soldier to propel him up.

He was able to get both Kai and the person to latch onto him and started flying them to the next wall. He struggled greatly with the weight of two people, so Kai used her own airbending to blow a airblast down which pushed them up higher. But at this moment, weapons started flying at them, aiming to knock them down. The masked man used his swords to block these weapons, but it was still difficult for them to stay afloat. Kai buried her face into Aang's clothes not able to manage looking at the dangerous projectiles coming at them.

The three barely made it to the second wall, and they all stumble and collapse onto it. Aang went after his makeshift staff which had fallen out of grasp, but a guard had beat him to it and Aang circled the man, which wasn't doing much good, so Kai blasted the man away from them.

Aang then took the time to airbend the rest of the guards away from them, but Kai saw that there were now guards using portable ladders to reach them. She quickly pointed this out to Aang who moved over to the farthest ladder and blew a powerful gust down. Kai, on the other hand, was not able to do that just yet, so she airbent the soldiers climbing up the ladder, one at a time. The third person of the group was using a similar way to rid the soldiers but using his swords.

Aang grabbed the two ladders Kai and him had cleared off and the two ran over to the man. Aang yelled first to Kai, "Here hold this," giving her the ladders. "Jump on my back!"

The two swiftly compiled and it turned out Aang was using the ladders as some sort of stilts to literally walk across the courtyard. As the first one starts to follow over he cries, "Gimme the next one."

Kai passed the ladder to the man, who passed it to Aang. When that one began to fall, she repeated the action. They were almost to the third and final wall, using the third ladder as a stilt, when a soldier started to send fire up it. This forced the group to jump off the ladder to prevent them from getting burned. But, it was a long stretch to reach the wall. They all grappled for it, and it was Kai who was able to get the best grip. This was with her bad arm though, the one with the wound. So, she groaned at the pain, but tried her best to hold on. It wasn't enough though, and she succumbed to the pain and relinquished her grip on the wall. They all tumbled down to the ground. But, Aang with his quick thinking airbet a cushion for their fall.

The three recovered swiftly but they were once again surrounded and the soldiers sent blasts of fire at them, Aang quickly placed Kai and their masked savoir behind them and protected them from the incoming fire.

It stopped suddenly and Kai took this opportunity to pull Aang farther away from the soldiers since he was breathing so heavy and she didn't want him to get hurt because he was tired , Kai saw Zhao strolled and commanded to the soldiers, "Hold your fire, the Avatar and his Apprentice must be captured alive."

They were now at a standoff, when Kai felt something sharp at her neck and she realized that it was the man who had broken them out and he was now threatening them. She heard Aang gasp beside her and assumed that he was in a similar predicament. Kai's instincts took a hold of her and she began to struggle out of the man's grasp. But the sharp sword only pressed harder into her neck, warning her to stop. She felt it nick her skin, and that's only when she stopped.

Finally Zhao broke the silence and said, "Open the gate."

An officer asked confused next to him, "Admiral, what are you doing?"

But Zhao ignored the officer and commanded, "Let them out, now!"

The trio began to back up, with the swords still to the former two prisoners necks. She saw that Aang looked terrified, but Kai was determined not to show the Fire Nation more fear than she had already given them, so instead she developed a stone cold face, icly glaring at all the soldiers that had kept her captive.

They kept traveling down the road rather calmly. Their new captor didn't rush out of there as Kai expected him too. This scared Kai even more because if she couldn't predict what their captor was going to do, then she couldn't figure out a way to get her and Aang into safety.

Still, she kept up her stony defense. They were just about to reach the crossroads and Kai was trying to think of which way they would be going. But then an arrow flew towards them and struck their captor in the head effectively knocked him back and out.

Kai let out a breathe of relief that swords were no longer at her neck. But then it struck her that her free pass of getting out of the fortress was gone. Aang had realized this too, so he bent a dust cloud. Curiously, he reached for the mask to find out who they're rescuer was.

Kai had a fleeting thought when escaping with this man that it was one of her friends or someone from her tribe because of the blue mask. But, Aang removed the mask and revealed the scared face of Prince Zuko. Aang scrambled back from him as if the mere appearance had burnt him. Kai gasped and started to back away from him too. Never in a million years would she have guessed it was Zuko. He was third to both Zhao and the Firelord respectively to people least likely to rescue them. He was probably only using this as a smokescreen to capture them.

Also, Kai did not like the positions she had been in the last time that he had been with him. So Kai began to run off with, assuming Aang would follow. But when she noticed that he wasn't by her side, she looked behind and saw that Aang was approaching Prince Zuko again. Rashly, Aang picked him off and began running towards Kai again. "This way," he whispered. "The smoke screen will go away in a minute."

She was momentarily confused at seeing Aang carry their enemy to safety, it wasn't enough time to question it, and she raced up to catch up to him. He ducked into the tall bushes and began running parallel to the line of trees, trying to get as far away from the soldiers that were sure to follow them.

The two cut through the plants in silence, to confuse the soldiers of which way that they want. After a good hour of running, they stopped by a small stream in which Kai refilled her water skin, happy that she had her two elements at her disposal again. She then turned to Aang and asked him, "Why did you take him with us? What's going to happen when he wakes up? Have you forgotten he's our enemy?"

"He's saved us, in case _you've_ forgotten," Aang replied hotly. "Without him, we would still be in that awful prison with Zhao. He may has well saved your life, Kai. I couldn't just leave him there. Also if he rescued us he might have some good in him."

"He can't, he's the crown prince of the Fire Nation, he's directly related to the people that ruptured the balance of the world," reasoned Kai.

"Well maybe he's different, I used to know people in the Fire Nation," Aang said kindly, hugging his legs, " You know what the worst part of being born over a hundred years ago is? I miss all the friends I used to hang out with. Before the war started, I used to always visit my friend Kuzon. The two of us, we'd get in and out of so much trouble together. He was one of the best friends I ever had, and he was from the Fire Nation, just like you," Kai now realized that he was talking to the knocked out Zuko. " If we knew each other back then, do you think we could have been friends, too?"

A silence passed over the three, before the firebender let loose a flame directed at the other two. Aang jumped straight up into the air, landing on a tree branch and jumping from one to the next.

Kai however rolled out of the stream of fire, narrowly missing them, and took off sprinting, following Aang. After running for a good five minutes, she chanced a glance behind her to check how far back the Fire Nation prince was, but she only saw forest behind her. She slowed her pace to a jog and yelled up to Aang, "I think we're good now. He's not following us."

Aang jumped down from the trees in front of Kai. "I'm sorry, I thought maybe he had changed," he said simply.

"Forget it. Let's just get those frogs again and get back to Katara and Sokka," motioning for Aang to follow her.

They quickly made it to the swamp, being especially careful in entering it for they were worried they would be captured again. But the only evidence of the fight was the fallen arrows, so they two gathered the frogs to take back to their friends.

Exhausted, the two made their way back to the ruins. Barely making it inside, they put the frozen frogs in Katara and Sokka's mouths and Aang instructed them, "Suck on these, they'll make you feel better."

Kai noticed the unusual pile of objects surrounding Katara, but figured it would be better to leave them for tomorrow to worry plopped down on her bag of supplies, pulling out the blanket, and covering herself with it. "Aang, how was your trip? Did you make any friends?" Sokka asked still delirious.

"No, I don't think I did," Aang said sadly, turning his back to the group.

"What about you Kai?"

"Just suck on your frog Sokka," she said sharply ready to go to sleep. But when she turned onto her side, Kai heard something crunch underneath her.

She remembered what it was. The thing Zhao had used to tease her with. The information on what happened to her parents and her tribe. He thought she would never know. Well it just made it all the better that she could prove him wrong by looking at this report. She smirked for a minute before she realized what this paper contained. But now she would about her parent's probable escape, maybe she would even be able to find them. For some reason her shaking hands were preventing her from clearly getting the piece of parchment, so it took a few times to do so. Kai took it out of her sleeve and smoothed it out in front of her.

_OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE FIRE NATION NAVY_

_Sender: Captain Ling of Port Xie_

_Receiver: Admiral Zhao of the Northern Fleet_

_Subject: Requested Update on South Eastern Water Tribe Raid_

_The ship carrying the believed non-benders to the Fire Nation Capital experienced external damage. It is believed that it hit an unmarked sandbar that contained rocks on top of it. The bottom of the ship experienced damage and quickly leaked in water the prison hold and storage area. Crew could not repair the extreme damage so was forced to abandon ship. Only four Fire Nation officers survived this as it was extremely cold temperatures and the damage happened so fast. No evidence of the prisoners surviving was found. _

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**So as always, please, please, please, review. It really does make me want to get these chapters out faster so just drop a line or something**


	11. Ch 11: Grief

Grief

**Sorry, I haven't updated in awhile. Junior year turned out to be a lot crazier than I thought and I didn't have time to write. Even on the weekends I've been busy. I'll try my best to get the quickest update out. Also this chapter was very hard to write. **  
**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender**  
**Also, I don't know if they do this in the Avatar fandom but there is a trigger warning of a brief mention of suicide. If anyone has a problem with that please pm me or something. **

* * *

**Previously:**

"Just suck on your frog Sokka," she said sharply ready to go to sleep. But when she turned onto her side, Kai heard something crunch underneath her.

She remembered what it was. The thing Zhao had used to tease her with. The information on what happened to her parents and her tribe. He thought she would never know. Well it just made it all the better that she could prove him wrong by looking at this report. She smirked for a minute before she realized what this paper contained. But now she would about her parent's probable escape, maybe she would even be able to find them. For some reason her shaking hands were preventing her from clearly getting the piece of parchment, so it took a few times to do so. Kai took it out of her sleeve and smoothed it out in front of her.

_OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE FIRE NATION NAVY_

_Sender: Captain Ling of Port Xie_  
_Receiver: Admiral Zhao of the Northern Fleet_  
_Subject: Requested Update on South Eastern Water Tribe Raid_

_The ship carrying the believed non-benders to the Fire Nation Capital experienced external damage. It is believed that it hit an unmarked sandbar that contained rocks on top of it. The bottom of the ship experienced damage and quickly leaked in water the prison hold and storage area. Crew could not repair the extreme damage so was forced to abandon ship. Only four Fire Nation officers survived this as it was extremely cold temperatures and the damage happened so fast. No evidence of the prisoners surviving was found. _

* * *

Kai finished reading the paper. Her heart was beating unusually fast and her palms were sweating. Why was her body doing this? The night was its usual chilly temperature. She shrugged the blanket off of her in an attempt to cool herself. She lay down, willing the stone floor to cool her body.

She started to close her eyes, when the words, "No evidence of the prisoners surviving was found."

No evidence.  
Prisoners.  
Not surviving.  
Dead.  
The South Eastern Water Tribe.  
She was from the South Eastern Water Tribe.  
Her parents were from the South Eastern Water Tribe.  
Her parents were non benders.  
Her parents were on that boat.  
Her parents were dead.  
Kai shot up in fright facing towards the wall. She scrambled for the parchment and reread it. She reread it again, and again, and again. Only on the tenth did she accept that her eyes weren't wrong. It was printed in ink there. It said that there was no evidence of the prisoners surviving, but that didn't mean that it was true that they were gone. But the sentence before, "Water leaked into prison hold. Extremely cold temperatures."

* * *

"_Mommy, daddy, let's go to the beach! I want to go swimming!" the four year old announced boldly to her parents. _

"_Sweetie, we can't go to the ocean today," her mother kindly replied. "Don't you see the snow outside?"_

_Kai made a disgusted face, "I don't like snow! I just wanna go swimming!"_

"_Kai, you know how cold it is out there? You don't want to go in the ocean in the middle of winter. You'll catch your death out there."_

* * *

Her mother's words never were truer. It was the start of the winter when her parents were taken, and now it was closing in on the middle of the winter, the coldest temperatures. Anywhere, the water would be too cold to be in for more than a few minutes. Her morning swims back at the tribe were hard to push through the cold, but she always had a warm set of clothes draped neatly on the shore.

The people on that boat though, they were probably locked somewhere, and in the middle of the ocean, no shore to be their savior. Kai couldn't deny it anymore. Her parents had died a watery grave.

They weren't coming home. Kai wouldn't be able to save them from some Fire Nation prison. She wouldn't be able to if they weren't there. She never even got to say goodbye.

Memories began flooding into her mind of all those nights with her parents. The earliest memories of being sung to sleep by her mom, all those fishing trips with her dad, those late nights by the fire and falling asleep right by it. The words of her parents started to overwhelm her.

"My little waterbender!"

"Sing, Kai, sing,"

"We'll always love you."

"We'll always be there for you when you need us."

The last statement rung in her ears and Kai let it surround her. It ran across her vision, it repeated over and over again in her ears. No matter what she did, she could not escape it. It begun to lose meaning, but when it completely did, Kai begun to stare off at the wall, and did nothing but let her mind take hold of her body.

* * *

Sokka was the first one to wake up that morning. Something that was very odd since, he usually was the one to sleep in of the group. But the illness had done strange things to his body he thought, which meant waking up early morning. That meant he was given the task to wake up the rest of the group. If he didn't Katara would wake up, and scold him for not doing so.

Somehow she could always tell when he was pretending to be asleep. So, instead he pushed himself up, out of his sleeping bag and grudgingly went over to wake his sister and Aang. The last one he woke was Kai, who was the farthest away. He saw that she must've fallen asleep while sitting up she was so tired, because she was facing away from him towards the wall. Sokka gently put a hand on her shoulder, and shook her lightly to wake her up. "Kai," he said.

But, she made no indication of waking up, no angry groan or shift in her sleep, she was completely still. He tried it again, saying her name slightly louder this time, but still she did not wake. At this point Aang walked over towards Sokka rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Whatsgoinon?"

"Kai, won't wake up," Sokka explained. "Can you help me out?"

Aang shot a slight airblast at Kai to break her out of whatever daze she was in. Finally, she turned around.

Sokka immediately noticed her appearance, she had dark bags under her eyes and they were wide open. The blue in them were almost piercing through Sokka as they didn't look around as she faced them, only straight ahead.

"Ummm, Kai, are you alright?" Aang asked nervously.

Her head jerked to the side and her eyes began moving again, assessing her surroundings. "What, I'm fine," she replied quickly.

"You sure?" Aang asked again.

"Fine," she snapped back. "As much as I can be after narrowly escaping a Fire Nation prison last night. How about you buddy? Alright after we almost got killed?"

"Wait, you were in a Fire Nation prison last night?!" asked Katara alarmed. "What happened? How were you captured? Are you alright?"

Katara's fussing brought the attention away from Kai and back to Aang, as she began inspecting him for any injuries. She seemed satisfied with what she found, but ordered him to take his shirt off for her to repair.

They began packing up their supplies, Kai silently, and loaded up on Appa. Kai moved with a certain grace, robotically packing up her supplies. She made her injuries the least noticeable as possible. Her eyes began changing back to how they were when she was first awaken. They gave off no emotion and only looked straight ahead where she was. Her mind was completely away from where he was.

Once on Appa, Katara fixed Aang's shirt as they flew, while Aang regaled the tale of their escape but Kai paid no attention to the duo and they did the same to her.

Her mind was still had not stopped rushing around, and her thoughts still swirled around her. Right now they were about the little boy who she used to babysit when her parents wanted a bit of time alone together. He had so much energy and would run Kai out of her own energy when she was with him.

But, Kai did not mind at all because he reminded her of the innocence in the world. Much like Aang. That boy had started to become a little brother to her as she had none. Because her parents only had her. Her parents were dead. That little boy was dead. Her parents were dead. Her family was dead. Shen's parents, who were always extremely caring towards Kai, came to the South Eastern Water Tribe for sanctuary. They were dead. They had all drowned on a Fire Nation ship, spirits know where.

Kai didn't even know where her parent's bodies lay. She would never find them. Kai and her friends would never be able to give them a proper burial and goodbye. Or any goodbye.

They landed at nightfall, and the situation on the saddle was about the same. Occasionally, someone would ask Kai if she wanted to take a nap but, she would snap at the saying she was fine. They slide off Appa, and that was when Katara spoke up. See, since Kai's mind was so far off, she didn't even think about covering up her injuries so her friends would leave her alone. Because right now she would rather not talk to anyone.

No one else understood what she was going through. Kai was now an orphan, Sokka and Katara still had a father and grandmother. Aang never really had a true family. Their sympathy would be fake and they would probably all try to relate to her. She really didn't need that now.

Only her friends from her tribe would understand. Spirits, she would have to tell her friends that their parents were dead. How was she going to be able to do that? Kai felt nauseous at this thought. Especially, when they found out they were attacked because of Kai. How could she tell them their families essentially died for her, while she cowered in a log?

"Kai!"she heard a voice say. The Avatar's Apprentice turned towards the direction of the voice. It was Katara she saw, "I've been calling for you for ages! What happened to your leg? You're limping."Kai shrugged her shoulders in response and turned away from her again "You got hurt when you and Aang were escaping, didn't you? Let me see it."

Katara walked over to Kai and knelt to look at her ankle. But, Kai moved it away so Katara couldn't inspect it. "It's fine, Katara. I don't need you to look at it."

Katara huffed, "It's not that big of a deal, just let me patch it up."

"It's just a little sprain," Kai replied hotly. "It'll heal just fine on it's own. Just leave me alone."

"There's nothing wrong with asking for a little help," Katara said, her eyes in slits. "Spirits, you're acting like such a child."

Kai snorted, "That's funny Katara, because if you've forgotten I'm older than you. So it's ironic to call me a child while you are one in my eyes."

"Excuse me," Katara asked angrily. "Who's the one that cooks the meals for the group? Who does the laundry? Who makes sure that we're all together? Me, not you! Age obviously doesn't matter here!"

"You make sure we're all together?! You left me just a few weeks ago and never came back and looked for me!"

"You told us to leave you behind!" Katara yelled back. "We were following what you were saying. How dare you blame us for something you told us to do!"

"If I had left you behind then, I would've tried to come back and find you! You guys kept traveling North! What if I hadn't caught up to you!"

"I can't even argue with you, because your logic if so screwed up! You're such an avoider! You probably even forgot what we were arguing about because you don't like to face things that are hard! That's why you have problems with waterbending! You won't even accept that you have problems with it, you just know it's hard so you use airbending instead! Even Aang who is an avoider too, is able to get through some really tough stuff! Did you parents ever teach you to face the HARD STUFF IN LIFE!"

Katara was breathing heavily at the end of her rant and she watched Kai for her response. But her eyes again went weird and gave off no anger for about a minute. Her eyes then started changing from Katara could see to anger and then sadness as if she couldn't decide what she was feeling. Kai turned away from the group and ran off into the forest behind them, without saying anything.

She felt so ashamed, her parents wouldn't be happy with her. Katara was right she did like to avoid stuff and she shouldn't do that. Kai's parents had probably told her that at one point in her life and now she was dishonoring them by avoiding life. How could she? She had already shamed them by hiding like a coward, and by causing the village to be attacked.

Kai had caused all this, and no one else If she had just kept her mouth shut about her waterbending, if she had trained harder, if she cared more. She was such a screwup,

Kai thought maybe if she had left her tribe when she was younger, she wouldn't have caused all those good and innocent people to die. That little boy and all of the other non-bender children, all of her friends' parents, Shin and the elders, her parents. She broke out of the forest next to a small tree covered creek and collapsed, sobbing hysterically thinking about all of the memories of her tribe.

A hand touched Kai's shoulder gently and she shuddered not knowing who it was. It could be anyone since Kai didn't know how far away from camp she had run and where she had wandered into. It was almost like she was just asking to be attacked. She was so vulnerable right now on the creek's edge with her emotions like they were.

So instead of just staying there, Kai took a deep breathe to collect herself. She summoned her anger from her parent's deaths and unrolled from the ball she was in, and spun around quickly to face whoever was behind her.

Kai looked up to see the concerned face of Sokka. His forehead was wrinkled and his eyes looked at Kai with pity. Those eyes lit a spark in her heart because she knew there was no real sympathy. He only saw a girl having some sort of mental breakdown and felt uncomfortable about it. He only came after her because of her position in the world. No one actually cared.

Sokka opened and silently closed his mouth several times as if to say something but then immediately changed his mind. "What?" Kai asked, angrily wiping away her tears.

"Umm...are you okay? I mean you seemed upset back there and now..."

"Go hunt or something, Sokka. Leave me alone," Kai ordered.

"You sure?" the Water Tribe warrior asked hesitantly.

"Yes," she answered simply.

He started to turn around and walked away from the girl, but before he completely left he added, "Katara didn't mean what she said."

"Yes she did," Kai muttered sourly.

"What was that?" Sokka asked turning back.

"Nothing," she replied sharply. "Just maybe that Katara was right about what she said."

"No, she wasn't right you're a great person."

"I'm not," she said softly. "Just leave me alone."

"No, Kai, we need to talk about this."

"I said, leave me alone!" Kai yelled back

"I can't believe I'm saying this but I think you need to talk about this," Sokka added.

"Get out of here! I don't want to talk about anything!"

"No, Kai, you're going to tell me what's wrong and I'm not leaving!" Sokka yelled back.

"You don't get it! You don't want to know what's going on! Mind your own business and leave!"

"Please talk to me," Sokka pleaded. "You're scaring me."

"Well maybe I should because of the things I've done would qualify me as a monster."

"What have you done that makes you think that?"

"You really want to know," Kai screamed at him. "THEN HERE!" thrusting her fist into her shirt pulling out the parchment from the night before.

Sokka fumbled for the paper floating down, but was eventually able to catch it. Kai turned her back to him as she heard him uncrumple it. Closing her eyes, she braced for his reaction. It couldn't go right. Either he would pity her or would accept the monster and murdered she was.

Kai once again felt a hand on her shoulder, this time gentler though. She responded to the touch and turned to face Sokka again. She still had her eyes closed though, since she wanted to prolong the time before she saw his reaction. The Apprentice heard him sigh, so she decided to just do it.

Eyes open she saw the reaction she feared the worse. The pity. The one she knew was fake sympathy. "Kai, your parents were non-benders, right?" Sokka asked softly.

Kai nodded silently. "They were on that ship, weren't they?"

Again she nodded, and Sokka's eyes changed to even more pity and sadness. How could he feel sadness? He didn't even know them. He didn't the open and relaxed relationship she had had with them in the last year. After all the shenanigans that had gone on with finding out her abilities, she was finally becoming comfortable again. Her parents always had been so accepting, and she had hindered it by hiding her abilities. Before she had grown away from her parents, sticking more to her friends. They didn't bug her much about it, but now she saw how wrong she was. They weren't here and she never told them about how much she loved and appreciated them. How much she would kill just to have one last moment with them. To just tell them how much she loved them, and all the things she hid but had planned to tell them. She could never talk to them.

"Oh, man.I don't really know what to say. But, I'm so sorry, Kai," Sokka said kindly. "Is that why you think you're a monster? Because they died?"

For the third time, she nodded."You do know it's not your fault right? You didn't cause their deaths. The Fire Nation did."  
"No, I did," she replied.  
"You didn't ask for them to attack your tribe? You didn't cause this."  
"No, I did," she repeated monotone.  
"How can it be your fault? You didn't want this."  
"It's mine!" she screamed. "If I hadn't been at my tribe then we wouldn't have gotten attacked! It's all because of who I am! I hate it! I put everybody in danger by living there. I knew it, the chief knew, everybody knew that waterbenders, and especially one who is the freakin' Avatar's Apprentice would do this!"  
"Kai..." Sokka started.  
"No, Sokka, don't Oh, Kai me. You don't understand! If I was really a good person, I would've left my family and people! I was selfish and I stayed and I led this people who were better than me to their deaths. I caused this, they were looking for me. If I had fought or even surrendered...Spirits, I just wish that sometimes I hadn't been born. Or even better I wish I could die!"  
Kai stormed off from Sokka. He didn't know this feeling, he didn't care, she kept repeating. All she wanted was to get away from them. She wanted to be alone, maybe then she would be able to forget all her pain. Maybe she could do something that would make her forget.

That was until she felt her body slam to the ground. The dirt and grass uncomfortably caked her face and hair. Her body throbbed from when she hit the ground. The weight that had tackled her would not move off of her for a minute. She squirmed underneath it, trying to free herself. Only slowly did it let her go. When all of the weight was gone, she quickly jumped up onto her feet and spun around to face the person. Seeing it was yet again Sokka, who was breathing as heavily as her, she angrily yelled, "What the hell was that? I tell you my parents die and you hurt me more? What kind of person would do that?" She took a step back to get away from him.

But, both of his hands clamped on her shoulders, "I'm not going to let you die."

"Why, Sokka?! Why?" she asked with tears in her eyes. "It would be the easy way, and I just don't think I can do this anymore."

Sokka looked at Kai sadly, as he could see that the girl had accepted defeat already. She just looked so broken. "Come over her and sit," he said, pointing to rather large rocks on the side of the bank.

He lead her over, and to the rocks and sat her down. She complied simply and quietly. "Kai, please just listen to me." She nodded. "You are not a monster and you are not going to die at least not on Aang, Katara, and mine's watch."

"I'm tired, Sokka," she said quietly after a pause. "I just don't want to be me anymore. I want to be normal again."

"You are normal," said the Water Tribe boy. "You laugh, love, feel anger, like any other person in this world."

"I'm not, and I hate it. If I was normal, then all this wouldn't have happened. You're so lucky that you're a non-bender. I wish I was too. Maybe my parents and tribe would be alive then."

"Ah, you don't really mean that," Sokka replied with a slight smile. "Don't tell Katara this, but I think that if I could I would want to be a bender like you guys. I just feel so useless in fights."

"But I'm even more useless than you think you are. At least you know how to fight with your weapons. I can barely control my own abilities."

"You'll get it Kai, you know why? Because I see how hard you work at getting it. You even have more determination than Katara, and that's saying something. So why would you give up so easily with your life?"

Kai's face turned a bit darker. Her eyes found the ground, and she refused to make eye contact with Sokka. "I don't know," she mumbled."I just want it to end. I don't want to carry this guilt around anymore. I just miss my parents," bringing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms tightly around them.

"You can't give up like that. You feel like your parent's deaths are your fault, right?"

"Yeah," she responded softly. "But I don't see how this will help me?"

"Well, if you feel responsible for you deaths, do you think that they died because of you?"

She let out a small choked sob, but nodded her head still. "How I see it, is that they didn't die because of you, but rather for you. You always told us how much your parents loved you, and because of that they wouldn't give you up that quickly. They wouldn't want you to give up like this would they?"

"Well, I mean maybe if I really wanted..." she trailed off.

"No, tell me just what you think you would want them to say, but what they would actually say."

"No," she whispered.

"Then would you want to dishonor their memory by going through with what you said?"

Kai paused and thought about this for a minute. "I guess not, but it's just so hard, Sokka," she started to cry again. Sokka looked around a little awkwardly. How was he supposed to comfort this girl? She just lost her parents. Then he remembered that he had lost one too. So he did what he did to Katara when they found their mother's burnt body. He just held her. He didn't mutter false comforts, but only held her.

Kai began to calm down a little bit so Sokka released her. He moved back to his rock and said, "I know there isn't much I can do, but you shouldn't shut us out. All of have lost someone special to us, and we can help, especially Aang. I think it might be good for you to do that. But only if you let us, ok?"

She wiped her face and said, "Ok."

"Do you want to go back to the others, yet?"he asked hesitantly.

She shook her head no. "I just want to be alone for a little bit."

"You sure that it's a good idea?" Sokka asked raising his eyebrow. "I mean you were..."

"It's fine, Sokka," she said quietly. "You can go back and tell the others, I guess... I just need a moment alone."

"Ok," he said, moving away from the rock. He turned around one last time to add. "Kai, don't blame yourself for this. You're not a monster. You didn't cause this. To do that, you would want to have that happen. But the only people who wanted that is the Fire Nation. Just remember that."

He turned around and walked out the clearing, not even looking back at Kai. His last words still sat in her head though. Of course she felt guilt for her parent's death. No one could make her give that up or feel less about this. Same as Aang did for his people, she guessed. But Sokka was right. It was somebody else's fault too. It was the Fire Nation. It was Zhao, Zuko's, soldiers, and especially the Fire Lord's fault. They had attacked a neutral territory. They had taken her parents. They had died on a Fire Nation ship.

She would not hold back anymore. Kai now didn't want to go back to her small village. She would never be able to fight the Fire Nation there, and that was exactly what she needed. She needed to make them feel her pain. She needed to make them feel what it was like taking away someone's family.

She would not stop until they felt this and got the justice they deserved. With this new found determination, she found a pebble on the ground and threw it as hard as she could, pretending it was every Fire Nation soldier she wanted to destroy.

* * *

So yeah... and like I said before this chapter proved to be difficult to write. I'm not really that satisfied with this chapter but..Tell me what you think about this chapter and any ideas you would like to see in the future.


	12. Ch 12: The Fortuneteller

**AN: Hi, everybody it's the musical bender again, here with another chapter. I know it's been a while, and I'm sorry. I got busy and I felt like no one was enjoying this story. But, an amazing review from xoJaadiexo re-inspired me. So I managed to get this out. Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to get another chapter out until Thanksgiving time, because I have school, and then soon play practices for 4 hours each day in November. So I won't have a life (not mentioning time to write this). Hopefully in the winter, I'll be able to update more frequently.  
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.**

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"The Fortuneteller"

The group had been traveling steadily for a week. It was the first time in a long while that they had actually kept on track and out of trouble. Kai was still rather quiet, since the death of her parents, but the others in the group tried the best to support her.

It was early morning, and the group was lounging around a small lake, enjoying the rare warm weather. Most of them sat around the now died out fire, enjoying the last of their small meal. Kai, however, had taken her bowl and moved off to the group of rocks to the side. There, the girl held her empty bowl sitting gently on the lower rocks. Her uncovered feet skimmed the top of the water, making small ripples. She stared off into the distant unknown to the others, but lost in her own world. Her head didn't even turn when Katara shouted out, "Look!" pointing to a green large fish with whiskers.

"He's taunting us!" exclaimed Sokka, "You are so going to be dinner." He reached for his fishing pole, but found it was lacking something. "Ok, prank's up, where's the fishing line, Kai?"

She didn't respond and instead Aang butt in sheepishly, "It wasn't Kai. I didn't think you would need it, Sokka," holding up a woven necklace smiling.

Sokka groaned, "Aw, it's all tangled."

"Not tangled, woven! I made you a necklace, Katara. I thought since you lost the other one..."

"Thanks, Aang," Katara responded enthusiastically. "I love it!"

Sokka however had a very different opinion, rolling his eyes, "Great, Aang. Maybe instead of saving the world, you can go into the jewelry making business."

Aang shrugged his shoulders and replied innocently, "I don't see why I can't do both."

"Can you believe this kid, Kai?" Sokka called out to her. But again, she did not move or respond. The three kids looked at each other and Sokka nodded and waded through the shallow bank, to stand in front of Kai. Still, she did not recognize him until he said, quite loudly, "Kai, we were talking to you, please don't zone out."

Finally her eyes began to work again as they begun to move around, "What, what were you talking about?"

"What was the last thing that you heard us say?" he questioned.

"Ummm...something about where we were going next."  
"That was almost ten minutes ago, Kai," he told her solemnly. " I know you're still upset about your parents, but you can't ignore us like this. We're just worried about you."

"I know, you've told me that. Aang's told me that. Katara's told me that."

"Then, come over here and sit with us and stop moping about. There's a fish that's been teasing me."

Her face tugged a slight smile, and slowly slid herself off of her perch. Sokka led her deeper into the water, where he had last seen the glanced towards the shoreline and saw that Katara was trying on some sort of necklace that it looked like Aang had made. He nervously fidgeted, wondering if she would truly love the gift he had made and understood its significance. "How do I look?" Katara asked curiously.

Aang blushed fiercely, extracting another smile from Kai, "You mean all of you or just your neck? Because they both look great?"

A splash to her side brought the attention away. Sokka had caught the squirming fish, "Smoochie, smoochie," Sokka teased. "Someone's in love."

The fish slapped him, and finally got out of his grasp. Kai covertly pushed him back for the last comment, as Aang was now stuttering. Sokka's eyes emerged from the water, and Katara replied annoyed, "Stop teasing him, Sokka. Aang's just a good friend. A sweet little guy, like Momo."

Kai mentally rolled her eyes, and Aang said disappointed, "Thanks."

Kai lent her hand to Sokka, and they started their way back to the shore. "What was that for?"

Kai just shook her head in response. She was not going to let Sokka's innocent face get to her. He deserved it, even he couldn't be that oblivious. Well maybe he could be.

They got back to the shore, with Sokka dripping all over everybody. Sokka was mumbling something to Aang. However, Aang's attention was somewhere else as Momo flew above him. A faint call could be heard from a distance and Aang pointed to the east saying, "Someone's being attacked by a platypus bear."

The group rushed off, with surprisingly Kai leading the way. They saw a middle aged man dressed in blue about half the height of the creature he was facing. "Get out of there," Kai yelled, "What are you doing? Run!"

"Well, hello there," he cheerfully greeted the kids, narrowly missing the incoming claw. "Nice day, isn't it?"

"Make noise, he'll run off," Aang called.

"No, play dead, he'll lose interest," Sokka butted in.

The bear swung his claws at the man yet again, who only dodged it, which only made the kids worry more. "Whoa, close one, haha."

Cupping her hands, Katara called, "Run downhill then climb a tree!"

"No, punch him the bill," Sokka demonstrated.

"And then run in zig zags," Aang yelled.

"Just run as the fast as you can," Kai finished.

"No need, it's going to be fine," the man calmly replied.

Kai let out a groan of frustration and decided to jump into action, when the platypus bear started throwing trees at the traveler. She landed between the two and quickly let out a air blast to push the bear back and scare it away. The animal quickly recovered though and reared back on his hind legs. Though this would probably deteriorate any normal or sane person, Kai stood there preparing for a fight. As the other part of the gaang looked at Kai incredulously, Appa landed behind the bear, and scared him away with his enormous size. It jumped into the river, but not before laying an egg, which Sokka quickly ran over and grabbed, licking his lips, "Mmmm lunch, lucky for you we came along."

"Thanks, but everything was under controlled," the man was unfazed by the recent endangerment of his life. "Not to worry. Aunt Wu predicted, I'd have a safe journey."

"Aunt Who?" Aang asked curiously.

"No, Aunt Wu. She's the fortuneteller from my village. Awful nice knowing the future."

Katara's face lit up, "Wow, it must be. That explains why you were so calm!"  
"How can you say that, he almost got killed because he thought some lady thought that you would get to where you were going to safe. If it won't for us, you would've been nothing for but a bear's lunch!" Kai exclaimed.

"But, I wasn't, because you," he smiled."Aunt Wu must've known we would meet and you would protect does no good to dwell on the what ifs of life, and instead on what has happened. I thank you again, and have a nice day." He started to walk away from the group before turning sharply back to face them again, "Oh, and Aunt Wu said if I meet any travelers to give them this."

He handed Aang, a long wrapped package before scurrying away. "Maybe should go see, Aunt Wu and learn our fortunes," Katara suggested. "It could be fun!"

"Oh, come one," Sokka moaned. "Fortunetelling is nonsense."

The only response he got was Aang finally ripping the wrappings off the package and opening it up. "What do you know, an umbrella!"

"Come on guys, someone back me up."

As he said that though, the sky darkened and began to pour. Aang stood under the umbrella, while Katara bent a shield above her head. Kai let the water hit her freely though, as she felt it was refreshing, also because she knew that she could always quickly dry off later. However Sokka was not at all happy by the situation and Katara decided to gloat, "That proves it," joining Aang under the umbrella.

Sokka futilely held the egg over his head as some sort of protection, "No, it doesn't! You can't really tell the future," he stage whispered to Kai, "Back me up, Kai."

Shrugging her shoulders and crossing her arms she said softly, "I don't know Sokka, there are too many coincidences to not consider the possibility."

The group continued down the path that they were assuming went to the village of Aunt Wu. Aang and Katara were chatting, but Sokka was still cross. Kai was just silent. "Of course she predicted it was going to rain. The sky's been grey the entire day," he muttered.

Rolling her eyes at Sokka, "Just admit you were wrong and you can come under the umbrella," said Katara.

Sokka relented, "Look, I'm going to predict the future now. It's going to keep drizzling," he paused for a moment looking around. "See?"

However just as he was saying that, the rain begun slow falling until it stopped completely. The formerly grey skies cleared up and the clouds parted. Birds chirped and the sun shone done clearly on the group. "Not everyone has the gift, Sokka," Aang observed.

Katara and Aang continued to lead the group, when Kai silently dried herself off, and saw that Appa was about to do the same. She jumped high enough in time to not be hit by wet fur, but Sokka was not so lucky. He moaned, "Urgh," not satisfied with the position he was currently in. So he mirrored Kai's statue and crossed his arms and sulked silently.

The South Eastern Water Tribe girl though looked as she was unhappy because of the situation she was in, was actually unhappy because of the recent events yet again. These were the hardest of times for her. As during these times, when Katara and Aang were so wrapped up in something and Sokka was either sulking or focused on something independently. She felt that she could easily left behind, like how she has left her tribe. How she had left her tribe right in their time of need. How brave and noble was that? Would she ever be able to pay for her crimes?

Sure, others wouldn't call it crimes, but in Kai's mind it was the worst thing that she could do. Causing the genocide of her tribe seemed like a crime to her.

"So, which way do you think we should go, Kai?" asked Katara curiously.

"What?" she replied confused. She looked around and didn't even remember her surroundings. Instead of the narrow riverbed, they were now in a forest with larger than life trees. They were going uphill as well, instead of the flat path that she remembered being on last. Seeing the group was looking at her strangely she recovered saying, "The one Aang picked."

"And which one was that?"

The path split into two forks, figuring she had a fifty-fifty chance she pointed to the one closest to where Aang was standing, "That one."

"Ummm, I kinda didn't pick a path," Aang admitted sheepishly. "We were hoping you would pick because of all the times you traveled alone with Azimi you seemed to know you directions pretty well."

Katara's face softened a bit, "You zoned out, didn't you?" Kai looked at the ground and shrugged her shoulders. Katara huffed before scolding, "Sokka, I thought I told you to watch Kai to make sure she didn't do this."

"I'm not some thing to be watched," Kai angrily retorted. "You guys are treating me like a mentally unstable person."

"No, we didn't mean it like that," Katara quickly retracted. "It's just we're really worried about you and it hurts us to see you like this, and just want to help somehow. Do you understand?"

Kai looked at all of her friends, and for the first time since her parent's death, they actually seemed genuine to her. Not out of guilt they were acting, but rather they truly cared for her. When her world crashed all around her, they were still there. Kai acknowledged her friends with a small smile and a nod, pointing to the second path, "East is that way, if you wanted to know."

Katara smiled back, "Then, let's go that way. Come up here Kai and you can lead the way."

She obeyed Katara's command and soon the two girls were walking side by side, "So, are you excited to meet this Aunt Wu fortuneteller person?" Katara immediately asked.

"I guess so."  
"Please tell me you're not like Sokka on this and just think she is some sort of crackpot."

"I can't really judge because, I've never met her. But, at the same time it seems like too many coincidences to be true."

"I can't believe that we could find out our futures. Oh I have some many questions to ask her," said Katara.

"It could be fun. But if my future is anything like the past couple of days, I don't think I really want to know about it."

"Oh, right," Katara responded awkwardly. A silence passed over them for a minute, until Katara spoke up again, rather slyly, "What if she says something about your boyfriend though? What was his name again, Shen?"

Kai blushed a bit, "Yeah, that would be nice."

"Aww, you like him a lot don't you?" she teased. "You have to tell me all about him. What does he look like? What is he like? How long have you two been dating? Is he a good kisser?"

"One question at a time."

"Sorry."

"Well, Katara, Shen is..."

The two girls happily chatted for the rest of their journey. Katara kept asking Kai one question after another, and only when they reached the village did she stop.

"It wasn't like that exactly, I mean he tried, but he didn't know I was allergic to the sage root, and he was just trying to do something nice. It's not like he wanted my face to blow up..."

"Aunt Wu is expecting you," a man interrupted.

"Really?" asked Katara, her face lighting up. She rushed inside and the three others brought up the rear.

It was a simply lit entrance room. Four pink pillows sat side by side, so the kids removed their shoes and sat cross legged on them.

A girl younger than Aang walked into the room holding a tray with some sort of food on it. She wore a brightly colored pink and purple robe. What was most eccentric about her though was that her hair, that was in braids, stuck out completely to the sides. "My name is Meng and I'm Aunt Wu's assistant," she spoke with the slightest of lisps. Her eyes lingered on Aang, "Why hello there."

"Hello," Aang replied, rubbing his nose absentmindedly.

Approaching Aang, she asked, "Can I get you some of Aunt Wu's special bean curd puff?"

"I'll try a curd puff," Sokka interrupted.

Meng only shushed him with a finger and turned back to Aang, who was inches away from her face. "Just a second, so what's your name?"

"Aang," he said simply.

"That rhymes with Meng," she exclaimed. "And you've got some pretty big ears, don't you?"

"I guess."

"Don't be modest! They're huge!" Sokka spread his arms to demonstrate.

Aang reached up to feel his ears as to measure them somehow, disturbed how big he found them. Kai tried to gently concile him by patting him awkwardly on the back.

Meng continued, backing up, "Well Aang, it was very nice to meet you. Very nice."

"Likewise," the Avatar replied pleasantly.

Sokka grumbled, "I can't believe we're in the house of nonsense."

"Try to keep an open mind, Sokka," Katara tried to reassure her brother. "There are things in this world that just can't be explained. Wouldn't it be nice to have some insight into your future?"

"It would be _nice _to have some bean curd puffs."

Meng re-entered the room with the previously requested snacks. A lady dressed in green, gushing ran up to her and said, "Oh, Meng. Aunt Wu says I'm going to meet my true love. He's going to give me a Panda Lily."

"That's so romantic," Meng commented dreamily. "I wonder if my true love will give me a rare flower."

"Good luck with that," Aang said, overhearing the conversation.

The woman laughed and whispered to Meng, "Is that the big-eared guy who Aunt Wu predicted you would marry?"

Meng quickly pushed the woman out of earshot and towards the door. She proceeded towards the group but tripped on her long robes. Aang reaches out to help her and they end up holding hands. Meng looks at Aang embarrassed and blushes. The young girl drops off the bead curd puffs and practically runs away, "Enjoy your snack!"

Sokka reaches over Aang's lap for a bean curd puff, and is in the process of devouring it as a old lady dressed in ornate yellow robes with much jewelry. Kai supposed that this must be the Aunt Wu who is revered throughout the village. "Welcome young travelers," she said, spreading her arms. "Now, who's next? Don't be shy."

Kai was leaning back against the wall, closing her eyes. Sokka's attention was focused on the puff. Aang just looked to Katara, who stood up, "I guess that's me."

By the time Katara had left, Sokka's mouth was full of the curd puffs. Still he tried to be somewhat polite and offered it first to Aang who shook his head, then Kai who silently took one. Aang was twiddling his thumbs as he asked, "So what do you think they're talking about back there?"

"Boring stuff," Sokka replied casually, examining a puff at the same time. "Love, who's she going to marry, how many babies she's going to have."

"Yeeeeah, dumb stuff like that..." Aang trailed off. "Well I've got to find a bathroom."

Aang got up suddenly and left the room. Sokka plopped onto his back. "What are you doing there?"

"I'm trying to meditate," the Avatar's Apprentice replied dryly.

"Oh, what for?"

"Well, Aang does it to clear his mind, maybe it'll do the same for me."

"Do you need me to be quiet?"

"Kinda."

Sokka looked around the room counting the cracks in the ceiling to waste time, as he heard Kai's steady breathing. "Uggh, I can't do this now," she groaned, opening her eyes."Instead of clearing my mind, it's just making it busier and busier."

Sokka shrugged, not sure how to answer that, and then decided to pick his teeth. Aang came back looking smug from the bathroom. ""Looks like someone had a pretty good bathroom break," Sokka noticed.

"Yeah...when I was there-"

Sokka held out his hands to stop him, disgusted, "I don't even want to know!"

Katara came back with Aunt Wu soon after, who asked, "Who's next?"

Sokka reluctantly stood up, "Ok, let's get this over with."

"You future is full of struggle and anguish. Most of it, self inflicted," Aunt Wu predicted immediately.

Sokka stood dumbfounded, "But you didn't read my palms or anything."

"I didn't need to. It's written all over your face," directing her attention to Aang, "You there, come with me."

Aangfollowed the fortuneteller out of the room and Katara took her place next to Kai. "So, aren't you going to ask me about what Aunt Wu predicted?"

"I don't know, what if you told me and because of that it won't be true."

Katara pondered this for a minuted, "I never really thought of it that way."

"Then maybe I won't have a life of suffering," said Sokka.

"No, I don't think so because whenever you get hurt, it's usually your own fault. Like the blubber incident..."

"Aaaah! You said you would never speak of that again," cutting off his sister.

Katara rolled her eyes. A few minutes passed, and Aang came back with Aunt Wu, happier than before, and whose eyes drifted over to Katara. "Finally you," Aunt Wun announced pointing to the South Eastern Water Tribe girl.

Kai slowly pulled herself out of the lotus position, and she followed the fortuneteller through the doorway.

She shuffled down the hallway, until the older woman opened a door and walked into a rather small room. The walls of it seemed to glow as the lamps hung from the edges of the ceiling emitted light downwards reflecting against the orange tapestries. A low table was in the center of the room, and pillows were set up on either side of it. The older lady motioned for her to sit, and Kai picked the pillow that faced the door. The fortuneteller joined Kai after a few moments, bringing a pot over and placing it on top of a low holder. She lit a small fire underneath.

"Tea leaf reading is a reliable method as it not only can tell an act in the future will occur, but also approximately when. It also happens to unload a burdened mind, as I can see you have."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kai immediately defended.

"I can see, just like your fellow travelers, that you have a burdened mind, most likely the result of something that has happened lately, as it is something that is very clear on your face," Aunt Wu replied calmly.

Kai just crossed her arms and looked down. The woman waited for a minute before pouring the tea first in Kai's cup, then her own's. The two sat there unmoving, letting the steam from the cups swirl all around them. "It would be better to tell me, for then to guess through your cup."

Kai again did not say anything. She first picked up her cup and took a small sip from it. She placed it gracefully down on the table. "My parents, I just found out, my parents are dead, they died along with most of my tribe."

"May, I ask how or who-" The woman curiously asked.

"Fire Nation," Kai interrupted curtly.

"Oh."

A silence overtook the two women, and Kai again reached for the cup and took another sip. "Well, aren't you going to say something? Try to make me see, it's not that bad. How this happened to a distant relative and they turned out fine." Kai said harshly.

"No," Aunt Wu responded.

"No?" Kai asked skeptically.

"Unless, you want me to, I will not offer false comfort." Kai raised an eyebrow. "I see that is no use for you. If I do you will keep thinking and dwelling on it."

"What's so bad about that? My parents died, I deserve some time to dwell on it. My life will be never be the same."

"True, it will not. It will be different, not necessarily better or worse but different. Only if you stop dwelling on it, could it be better."

"Why and how?" asked Kai now curious about what the old woman had to say.

"Dwelling on it leads to guilt, guilt leads to self pity, self pity leads to self hatred which will swallow you whole and not allow you to lead a normal life."

"I already don't live a normal life!" Kai said, raising her voice slightly.

"The responsibility you hold is not a death sentence, Apprentice!"

Kai's eyes widened at the last word and she grappled, "How...what...?"

"Yes, I know who you are. I have seen the posters of you and the Avatar, I would've known anyway because I can sense the power you two hold," said Aunt Wu. "I sometimes wonder why the spirits have chosen children to hold this responsibility in such a crucial part of this war, but I know better than to argue with destiny. Have you ever thought of a future? Of what would happen after the war is over?"

Her mind immediately lingered on Shen. Like all girls in love at that age, she had fantasized about her future with her boyfriend. She had already decided what kind of wedding she wanted to have, (a winter one, with snow all around her), but after the attack she had put those extraneous dreams on the back burner. Kai decided she could better use that time on focusing on her training and duty.

"Well of course," Kai meekly responded. "It's no good if I fail though, I need to focus on the present now."

"Still you came to me, and asked for your future to be read. All I can see though if you don't move past, whatever reason you have for it, your future is dim. If you choose however right now, your future may be more hopeful."

Kai stayed stone faced for a few minutes, only moving to sip her tea. Silence overtook the air and Aunt Wu let it run its course. Only when Kai put the cup down for the final time, did Aunt Wu make and interference, reaching over the table asking, "May I?"

Kai nodded silently again. "Let me see," the older woman said. She rotated the cup a few times and squinted at the tea remains. She declared, "As of right now, the cup indicates that you have an uncertain path, which means that all the rest of these predictions may or may not come true. Soon you will have an advancement, but it does not give any more information than that," she turned the cup again, " In the fifth month of this year, it seems that you will have a visitor in the middle of the month. Hmmmm it seems in the mid summer you will experience a large change, one that could lead you to a correct path. It seems like you may have a close call in the ninth month this year."

"Sozin's comet," Kai muttered under her breathe. "Well what else does it say?"

"That is all I can see as of now," the woman concluded.

"Nothing?" she asked again.

"Nothing distinguishable past that point ."

Kai did a mental huff. "You sure?"

"I'm positive, Apprentice. It seems that the fates have not decided which way you will go and what will be your outcome."

"I guess that's it then..." Kai pushed herself out of her sitting position, and started towards the door.

"Do not forget my advice, young Apprentice," the woman said behind as, as Kai was reaching for the sliding door. She turned gave a small nod, and yanked the door open.

Kai walked back to the lobby where her friends where. Katara asked, "So how'd it go?"

Kai gave a noncommittal shrug, "No big surprises."

They walked out of the house and entered the street. "Well now you got to see for yourselves how fortune telling is just a big, stupid hoax," Sokka ranted as soon as they crossed the doorway.

"You're just saying that because you're going to make yourself unhappy your whole life," Katara quipped.

"That woman is crazy," exclaimed Sokka, voice rising. "My life will be calm, and happy, and joyful"

He took out his frustration on a nearby rock, kicking it out of his path. It bounced off a hanging side in front of them and came back to hit Sokka squarely in the head. The force of the impact knocked him off his balance, "That doesn't prove anything!"

Katara giggled at her brother before commenting, "Well, I like my predictions. Certain things are going to turn out very well."

"They sure are," Aang added, leaning in towards Katara.

"Why? What did she tell you?" Katara asked.

"Some stuff. You'll find out," Aang sauntered down the road, relaxed with his hands behind his head, with as much swag as a skinny 12 year old boy could muster.

A group of villagers had gathered in front of a slightly raised pavillion, that signaled the middle of their town. All of the villagers eyes were focused on the sky. "What's with the sky?" Kai asked.

"We are waiting for Aunt Wu to come and read the clouds to predict the future of the entire village," said a man standing near the four.

Kai nodded, and Aang nudged her, pointing to the sky, "That cloud kind of looks like a fluffy bunny."

"You better not hope that's a bunny!" the same man commented. "The fluffy bunny cloud forecasts doom, and destruction."

"Do you even hear yourself?" Sokka exclaimed.

"I don't know Sokka, bunnies can sometimes be known as vicious killers, especially if they are extra fluffy," Kai said lightly under her breathe to Sokka.

"That doesn't even make sens- wait, Kai, was that a joke."

"Shut up," she said through gritted teeth.

"It was, wasn't it?!"

"Shhh, she's about to talk," pointing to Aunt Wu who had entered the pavillion, with a book in her hands.

Sokka responded by rolling his eyes and yet again crossing his arms. "Bending arrow cloud," Aunt Wu announced. "Good crops this year. Nice big harvest."An elderly couple ahead of them rejoiced and the fortune teller continued, "Wavy moon-shaped cloud...let's see, gonna be a great year for twins."

A pair of identical boys jumped and high fived yelling, "Yes!"

"And a cumulus cloud with a twisted nob coming off from it...the village will not be destroyed by the volcano this year," she concluded.

The crowd cheered all around them. Sokka pouted however. "These people are insane to put all of their trust into this one person."

"Well look at it this way, Sokka. You're dad's chief of your tribe and you put all your trust in his hands," Kai thought out loud.

Sokka looked horrified and then started to turn a bit purple, grasping for words, "That's not the same thing...my dad is not like her at all...he makes decisions based on strategy and evidence!"

"I'm just putting things out there," she said, backing away from Sokka a bit.

Sokka just groaned and walked away from Kai, possibly going to find Aang. She couldn't see Katara anywhere through the bustling crowd. She figured it would be best if she just stayed out of the dispersing and shoving crowd, and slowly made her way over to the edge of a street, and leaned up against the wall, a open water barrel next to her. Kai absentmindedly kicked a stone from one foot to another. _"The responsibility you hold is not a death sentence," _rung in Kai's ears.

Sure it wasn't her death sentence, it was the death sentence of others. She reminded herself that this knowledge was what tore her tribe apart. It was the the knowledge that killed the majority of the tribe, and scattered the other part of her tribe. Now Aunt Wu was expecting her to get on with her life as if nothing happened. To live her life like she was nothing special. True she was the happiest when people didn't know her identity. It made her feel safe and that she could blend in. Kai knew she couldn't live her life as a lie though. Somehow running away from the duty she was given seemed worse. She would be found somehow, somewhere, and would have to face all the people in her life that she had let down, by doing so.

It was such a tempting option though. No one was stopping her from leaving, right now. This fantasy of traveling the world was turning out to be so wrong. She wouldn't ever be able to pick up where she stopped off. Kai didn't have Shen patiently waiting for her when she got home from a tour. She didn't have a bowl of her mother's steaming stew waiting at her place at the family table, after a long day of training.

But looking at the children laughing and running about the street reminded her why she didn't. Kai could've easily been mistaken as one of those kids when she was young. She might still have the same demeanor at her age, if it weren't for destiny and stuff. She couldn't just leave these kids and everyone else to cower.

"Kai!"

Her ears perked up at the sound of her name. "Kai!" Aang was racing across the market with Sokka trailing behind. "We're going up the volcano to find this really cool flower. Do you want to come?"

"Sure," she said, coming away from the wall, walking to the two boys. "You're not mad at me?" she asked Sokka.

"Naw, Aang just needed some quality bro time. He's having girl problems and needed my expertise."

"I don't think that really work-"

"Nonsense, Aang," Sokka said cutting him off.

"So, I wanted to try something else."

"I still can't believe you're dragging us all the way up here for a stupid flower," he grumbled several minutes later.

"Not just any flower," he told the two. "A panda lily, I've seen it in action and boy does it work."

"Flowers are fine once you're married, but at this early stage, it's critical that you maintain maximum aloofness," Sokka advised.

Kai's eyes widened, "Is that the 'advice' he's been giving to you? Aang, that's not how it works."

"That's why she's been pushing away….huh...I guess that's why my heart is telling to get this flower, and Aunt Wu said if I trusted in my heart, I will be with the one I love," said Aang.

"What? Don't tell me you believe in that stuff too," Sokka complained.

_"It's better than what you've told him,"_ Kai thought.

` "Well, Aunt Wu hasn't been wrong yet. Why shouldn't she be wrong about love?" Aang reasoned. He jumped up in excitement pointing to a wilting red and white flower. "There! On the rim."

He ran up to the edge of the volcano, with Sokka and Kai trailing. He bent down to pick it, and that was when the two others arrived. As Kai looked over the edge, she saw that the lava was bubbling at the surface, rising at the same time. "Oh no," Aang whispered. "Aunt Wu was wrong."

"Those people all think they're safe. We've got to warn them," said Sokka.

"There's no time to walk," the Avatar determined, pulling out his glider. "Grab on!"

Kai and Sokka obeyed and soon they were in the air speeding towards the village. "There's Katara," Kai announced, pointing right outside of Aunt Wu's house.

They descended quickly landing in front of her, who was irritated and didn't notice them at first. "Hi Katara," Aang greeted.

"Can you believe she won't let me in?" she ranted, referring to the older woman. "And after all the business I've given her."

"But she doesn't even charge," Kai shyly pointed out.

Katara paused, "I know, but still..."

"Well, we have other things to worry about. Aunt Wu was wrong about the volcano," Sokka filled her in.

"Sokka, you tried to convince me she was wrong before. It's going to take an awful lot to change my mind-" But as Katara finished, the volcano behind them began to rumble and started to emit black smoke. "Oh no."

The four ran to the market where most people were at,and Sokka yelled, "Everybody, that volcano is going to blow any second! Aunt Wu was wrong!"

"Yeah, yeah we know you don't believe in Aunt Wu, Mr. science and reason lover," a random passerby called out.

Katara stepped forward and put a calming hand on her brother's shoulder, and spoke logically, "If you won't listen to him, maybe you'll listen to me. I want to believe Aunt Wu and her predictions as much as you do, but my brother, Kai, and Aang saw the lava with their own eyes."

"Well I heard Aunt Wu's prediction with my own ears," another villager argued.

Aang moved to step forward, but surprisingly Kai bet him to the punch. "I understand you're wariness to trust us, but you are all in danger.I can't stand to see your village destroyed...like mine...please we just want to help. You have to be proactive."

She took a step back, shaking a bit, and Katara put a soothing hand on her back. The volcano groaned again causing the ground to shake and almost causing Kai to lose her balance.

"Look, can your fortune telling explain that?" Sokka pointed out.

"Can your science explain why it rains?" a man asked.

"Yes, yes, it can!" he responded outraged.

The villagers grumbled again and started to disperse, much to Kai's dismay. "Don't they know they're just putting themselves into more danger?"

"They just won't listen to reason," Katara reasoned worried.

"But they will listen to Aunt Wu!" exclaimed Aang, unnaturally happy for this situation.

"I know, that's the problem," Sokka said.

"Well, it's about to become the solution," the young boy told them mischievously. "We're taking fate into our own hands. First, I need to borrow Aunt Wu's cloud reading book."

"How?" asked Sokka intrigued.

Aang led them away from the market, so no one could overhear his plan, and it turned out to be simple. Aang would first steal ("borrow without asking" as he called it) Aunt Wu's cloud prediction book. Then, he and Katara would fly up and make the symbol of volcanic doom using their bending. Kai and Sokka would try to show this to Aunt Wu. Before it was just Sokka, but Katara highly doubted she would believe only Sokka.

Currently the three kids of the Water Tribe were standing outside of Aunt Wu's house trying to keep a lookout, while Aang climbed up the roof to sneak into the house. Five minutes had already passed, and there was still no sign of Aang coming out. "Do you think he got caught?" Katara whispered to Kai.

"Naw, if he did we would've seen him because he would've been kicked out or something," Sokka comforted.

"You sure?" Kai asked, fidgeting back and forth. "I mean five minutes is a long time."

"He probably got stuck getting in there or he hasn't found it yet. He'll be fine."

"I know," she replied softly.

They heard a whisper from the side of the building closest to the forest, and the three rushed over. Aang was standing there with a book in his hand. "I got it."

"Great," Katara praised. "But what took you so long?"

"Oh, um, that, um, I ran into somebody, but it's all good. They actually helped me find this," Aang said rubbing the back of his head.

"Then let's get phase two into motion. The sooner we do this the better," said the Water Tribe warrior.

Aang and Katara nodded and ran over to Appa, who was all saddled up and ready to go. "Go, as fast as you can, we're heading to get Aunt Wu now," he said, once Aang and Katara were on the saddle.

Aang yelled, "Yip, yip," and took off.

"Come on," Kai said, grabbing Sokka leading him back to the front of the house.

They spotted Aunt Wu about to enter her home after her walk so they called out her name. She turned at the sound of it. "Ummm...we just wanted to say...ummm..thank you for reading our fortunes, they were really helpful," Kai tried to compliment.

"Really?" she asked, looking at Sokka.

Kai elbowed him discreetly in the ribs, so he spoke up, "Yeah, umm, I'll be sure to be sure to, ummm, be more aware of my actions in the future. You know so I won't get that self inflicted pain thing, ummm-Hey Aunt Wu look at the sky, the clouds are changing."

He lead her over to the pavillion. "That's very strange. it shouldn't...Oh my!"

Kai looked up in the sky and saw a looming skull in the pink clouds. Very appropriate for volcanic doom. Aang and Katara apparently had landed because he ran towards the pavillion yelling, "We can still save the village if we act fast. Sokka has a plan."

"Lava is going to flow downhill to this spot. If we can dig a deep enough trench, we can channel all the lava from the village to the river."

"If any of you are earthbenders, come with me," Aang commanded.

"I'm an earthbender," said one of the twins that had previously spoken up.

"I'm not," added the other.

"Everybody else grab a shovel. Come on! We gotta hurry!"

Kai took one of the shovels and lead a group closer to the river. While Katara and Sokka took people closer to the village. Kai marked out an approximate width that they should dig, and started herself. During the process, she would dig and then would use her airbending to push the removed soil to the side closest to the village. She went down the passage that they were creating periodically and do this to all the dirt that had been upheaved.

She flinched as the volcano made another grown, spurting out. "Dig faster," Sokka could be heard down the way.

Aang appeared above the villagers, "Everyone needs to evacuate ! We'll come for you when it's safe!"

That was Kai's cue, who yelled, "Everybody follow me!"

They had agreed that it would be best if one of the gaang would lead the evacuation so it wouldn't be as panicked. She began leading them through the village at a remarkable pace, towards the river where they had first come from. "If you're strong enough, then help somebody who isn't. We need to get everyone as far as we can away from here."

She knelt down and let a small girl mount her back. Jogging, she tried to get far away from the village. If they could make it across the river, they could be safe, because it was deep enough to stop the lava flowing.

Kai hesitantly looked back, and saw the black crowd creeping towards the villagers. They wouldn't have enough time, to make it across the river. She figured that they were out of the main range of the volcano, so she made a quick judgement call.

Kai had noticed a large cave up ahead, so she decided it would be best to be out of range of flaming rocks, particularly in an area that couldn't catch on fire too.

Finally, when everyone was inside, she was able to rest. She sat at the mouth of the cave, on the lookout for any of her friends. She was worried that something had gone wrong, or that one of them had gotten hurt.

Kai had tied one her armbands to a tree that surrounded the cave, to let her friends know where they were hiding out. As, she was on the watch, Kai felt a slight pull on her shoulder. Turning around, she saw the little girl she was carrying before. "I left my stuffed rabaroo back at the village. Can we go back and get it?"

"Not right now, it's not safe," she replied calmly.

"But she misses her mama," the little girl reasoned, pointing to herself.

"As soon as we get back, we can find her," Kai smiled at the little girl. "Don't worry my friends are protecting your rabaroo."

"Yay!" the girl hugged Kai, and then scampered off.

"What are we protecting?" a voice said from the mouth of the cave.

"Aang," she cried, getting up, and meeting her friends, hugging Aang when she got there.

He hugged back before announcing to the entire group, "Your village is fine. The lava stopped flowing, and you'll be able to go back there soon."

"Rabaroo is alive!" the girl yelled.

"I didn't see any rabaroos at the village-" Sokka started.

"Her stuffed one, obviously," Katara replied. "Right?"

Kai nodded in affirmation.

By morning, the smoke had lessened so the villagers were able to return to their homes. Katara, Kai, Sokka, and Aang were preparing to get back on the road soon, and the villagers happily supplied them, as they were in debt for saving their town.

Just as they were about to take off, and the whole village had come to see them off, Aang remembered sheepishly, "By the way, we kind of borrowed your book."

"So you messed with the clouds, did you?" Aunt Wu angrily snatched the book from Aang's hands. But then her face softened and laughed, "Very clever."

"No offense, but I hope this taught everybody a lesson on not relying too much on fortune telling," Sokka lectured the group.

"But Aunt Wu predicted the village wouldn't be destroyed, and it wasn't. She was right after all," mentioned a man from the crowd.

"I hate you," Sokka said through gritted teeth.

Kai grabbed his shoulders to prevent him from charging at the man, and instead led him to Appa, and made him get on. He climbed to the back of the saddled and pouted all alone. Kai only shook her head in dismay.

"Goodbye everyone! It was so nice to meet you! Tack care, Meng!" Katara cheerily called out.

Once again, they were off on their adventure.

* * *

**Pretty, pretty, pretty please review. It makes me smile, everytime. **


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